Defensive or Deceptive? Two Strategies for Detecting Concealed Psychopathology With the Personality Assessment...

Area of Science:

• Psychological assessment
• Clinical psychology
• Industrial-organizational psychology

Background:

• The Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) is widely used in selection to identify psychopathology.
• Existing PAI validity scales are effective at detecting positive response distortion.
• The PAI's ability to detect concealed psychopathology under simulated applicant conditions requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate if PAI validity scales (PIM, DEF, CDF) under role-play conditions can detect psychopathology reported under standard conditions.
• To assess the convergent and discriminant validity of PIM-predicted deviation scores from role-play to standard administration.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from a prior study and a new sample of 203 undergraduate students.
• Administered PAI under standard and job applicant role-play instructions.
• Analyzed correlations between role-play and standard PAI scores, focusing on PIM, DEF, and CDF.

Main Results:

• Role-play PIM scores negatively correlated with standard condition elevated scores.
• Role-play CDF scores positively correlated with standard condition elevated scores.
• PIM-predicted deviation scores demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity with standard administration scores.

Conclusions:

• PAI validity scales, particularly PIM and CDF, show potential in detecting concealed psychopathology in high-stakes selection contexts.
• The study provides recommendations for optimizing PAI use when defensiveness and symptom concealment are likely.
• Findings support the utility of PAI validity scales in identifying individuals who may be attempting to conceal psychological issues during assessments.