FEIGNING SPECIFIC DISORDERS - A STUDY OF THE PERSONALITY-ASSESSMENT INVENTORY (PAI)

The Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991) represents an important development in the assessment of psychopathology. We examine d the usefulness of the Negative Impression (NIM) scale to detect naiv e (undergraduates with minimal preparation) and sophisticated (psychol ogy graduate students with 1 week preparation) subjects simulating spe cific disorders. We found that the NIM cutting score (> 8) was highly effective with feigned schizophrenia, marginally effective with feigne d depression, and ineffective with feigned generalized anxiety disorde r. Sophistication did not appear to be relevant to successful feigning , although it did allow graduate students to achieve higher clinical e levations in simulating depression.