Utility of the Psychological Screening Inventory: a review

The Psychological Screening Inventory (PSI; R. I. Lanyon, 1970, 1973, 1978, 1993, 2006) was developed as a cost-effective screening device in identifying persons for whom a more complete psychological evaluation should be conducted. The author reviews data bearing on the utility of the PSI in this regard and in more general applications. The Alienation scale showed strong effect sizes in distinguishing psychiatric inpatients from controls, the Social Nonconformity scale in distinguishing incarcerated groups from control, and the Discomfort scale in identifying persons with general psychological distress. These findings were supported by correlational data with comparable scales, and by a variety of smaller comparison studies. Meaningful discriminations were also shown for adolescents and for college-age young adults. Findings in studies of substance abusers and medical problems were also reviewed. Response Distortion scales showed effectiveness similar to that of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2; J. N. Butcher, W. G. Dahlstrom, J. R. Graham, A. Tellegen, & B. Kaemmer, 1989) validity scales. Validity was also shown for several of the seven available foreign language translations. It was concluded that the PSI is effective for the tasks for which it was designed.