Exaggeration or Fabrication? Assessment of Negative Response Distortion and Malingering with the Personality Assessment Inventory

The Personality Assessment Inventory (Morey, 1991 , 2007a ) features several procedures for the assessment of negative response distortion and malingering. The construction and subsequent validation studies are reviewed for three standard indicators: Negative Impression Management (NIM), Malingering Index (MAL), and Rogers Discriminant Function (RDF). Three new supplemental indicators have been introduced with the PAI-plus interpretive report (Morey, 2020 ), the Negative Distortion Scale (NDS), Hong Malingering Index (HMI), and Multiscale Feigning Index (MFI). The derivation and available validation evidence for these supplemental indicators are examined as well as their intercorrelations with the standard indicators. Suggestions are offered for additional research on the utility of the PAI to identify malingering, including further study of the configural analysis of negative distortion.