Use of Validity Indicators on the Personality Assessment Inventory to Detect Feigning of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

• Published in: Psychological injury and law Vol. 12; no. 3-4; pp. 204 - 211
• Main Authors: Russell, Duncan N., Morey, Leslie C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.12.2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Behavioral Science and Psychology; Clinical Psychology; College students; Distortion; Law and Psychology; Malingering; Medical diagnosis; Mental disorders; Personality; Personality tests; Post traumatic stress disorder; Psychology; Psychopathology; Research subjects; Validity; Validity scales; Veterans; United States > US; Personality assessment inventory; Feigning; Malingering; Post-traumatic stress disorder
• ISSN: 1938-971X; 1938-9728
• DOI: 10.1007/s12207-019-09349-7

This study examined the ability of several Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) validity indicators to detect feigning of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Participants included 491 individuals recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTURK): 44 participants were asked to feign PTSD, 25 participants carried a diagnosis of PTSD and demonstrated at least moderate levels of current symptom, and 422 served as control subjects. Results indicated that all of the PAI negative distortion validity indicators significantly distinguished the true PTSD from the feigned PTSD group. The indicators with the largest effect sizes were the Hong Malingering Function and the Multiscale Feigning Index, both of which demonstrated moderate sensitivity to feigned PTSD with specificity above 90%.