The negative distortion scale: A new PAI validity scale

Neil L. Mogge, James S. Lepage, Thomas Bell, Laurie Ragatz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

30 Scopus citations

Abstract

The personality assessment inventory (PAI) includes three scales to address negative feigning, but none have proved successful under all circumstances, especially with forensic populations. Using psychiatric inpatients, a new validity scale was developed for individuals presenting with higher levels of psychopathology, as often is the case with forensic patients. Items with extreme response frequencies were identified from within PAI's eight clinical scales that address psycho-pathology; from these a negative distortion scale (NDS) was constructed. To evaluate efficacy of the NDS, the structured interview of reported symptoms (SIRS) was used as a criterion measure for malingering. The NDS was found to effectively discriminate suspected malingerers, and it added incremental validity to existing PAI validity measures.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)77-90
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology
Volume21
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2010

Keywords

  • Exaggeration
  • Fake-bad
  • Feigning
  • Forensic
  • Malingering
  • NDS
  • New scale
  • PAI
  • SIRS

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Clinical Psychology
  • Psychiatry and Mental health

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The negative distortion scale: A new PAI validity scale'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this