Deriving the Transdiagnostic Scales From the Personality Assessment Inventory and SPECTRA: Indices of Psychopathology: A Demonstration.

Transdiagnostic models of psychopathology address many of the shortcomings common to categorical diagnostic systems. These empirically derived models conceptualize psychopathology as a few broad interrelated and hierarchically arranged dimensions, with an overarching general psychopathology dimension, the p-factor, at the apex. While transdiagnostic models are gaining prominence in mental health research, the lack of available tools has limited their clinical translation. The present study explored the potential of creating transdiagnostic scales from the joint factor structure of the Personality Assessment Inventory, Alternative Model of Personality Disorder trait scales (AMPD), and the clinical scales of the SPECTRA: Indices of Psychopathology (SPECTRA). Exploratory factor analysis in a clinical sample (n = 212) identified five factors corresponding to the Negative Affect/Internalizing, Detachment, Antagonism/Externalizing, Disinhibition/Externalizing, and Thought Disorder transdiagnostic dimensions. Goldberg's "Bass-Ackward" method supported a hierarchical structure. Five composite transdiagnostic scales were created by summing each factor's highest loading PAI and SPECTRA scales. A global psychopathology scale was created by summing the five composite scales. All the composite scales demonstrated adequate internal consistency. Correlations between the composite scales and the NEO Five-Factor Inventory-3 provide initial validity evidence for four composite and global scales. The composite thought disorder scale had no conceptually corresponding NEO domain. Clinical implications and study limitations are discussed.

Using the Personality Assessment Inventory to Assess the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders: Criterion Validity in a Clinical Sample.

The Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) is a broadband measure of psychopathology that is widely used in applied settings. Researchers developed regression-based estimates that use the PAI to measure constructs of the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD) - a hybrid dimensional and categorical approach to conceptualizing personality disorders. Although prior work has linked these estimates to formal measures of the AMPD, there is little work investigating the clinical correlates of this scoring approach of the PAI. The current study examines associations between these PAI-based AMPD estimates and life data in a large, archival dataset of psychiatric outpatients and inpatients. We found general support for the criterion validity of AMPD estimate scores, such that a theoretically consistent pattern of associations emerged with indicators such as prior academic achievement, antisocial behavior, psychiatric history, and substance abuse. These results provide preliminary support to this scoring approach for use in clinical samples.

Can the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality Be Used to Measure the Triarchic Model Constructs of Boldness, Meanness, and Disinhibition? A Scale Derivation Study.

Can the components of the triarchic model of psychopathy (i.e., boldness, meanness, disinhibition) be operationalized using the item pool comprising the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) model? To address this question, the authors first derived CAPP-based triarchic scales using standard item-selection procedures and then examined the external correlates of these provisional scales in three archival data sets: (a) U.S. jail inmates administered the institutional rating scale version of the CAPP and (b and c) prototypicality ratings of the CAPP traits provided by Swedish forensic mental health professionals and U.S. probation officers. Although most research on triarchic constructs has relied exclusively on self-report inventories, the results suggest that the CAPP model can be reorganized to reflect boldness, meanness, and disinhibition and that its institutional rating scale items can effectively quantify these constructs using interview and file review data. Implications for future research on the measurement and assessment of psychopathic traits are discussed.

Concurrent validity of the personality assessment screener in a large sample of offenders.

Mental health problems are disproportionately prevalent in forensic and correctional settings, and there have been numerous attempts to develop screening tools to evaluate individuals in such contexts. This study investigates the clinical utility of the Personality Assessment Screener (PAS; Morey, 1997), a brief self-report measure of risk for emotional and behavioral dysfunction, in a large mixed-gender offender sample (N = 1,658). The PAS is a 22-item measure derived from the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991, 2007), a more comprehensive self-report instrument widely used to assess for psychological disturbances among forensic and correctional populations. We examined the ability of the PAS to concurrently predict clinically significant elevations on the PAI and several other indicators of symptomatology and dysfunction. Collectively, results suggest that PAS total and element (subscale) scores show considerable promise in screening inmates for serious problems with emotional and behavioral functioning, though interpretive ranges used to categorize PAS scores in clinical and community settings may require revision for criminal justice populations. We discuss the applied value of the PAS for detecting specific areas of dysfunction relevant to risk management (e.g., aggression, suicidality) and for concentrating resources on offenders with the most immediate and severe need for psychological services. (PsycINFO Database Record

Examination of the Triarchic Assessment Procedure for Inconsistent Responding in six non-English language samples.

The Triarchic Assessment Procedure for Inconsistent Responding (TAPIR; Mowle et al., 2016) was recently developed to identify inattentiveness or comprehension difficulties that may compromise the validity of responses on the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM; Patrick, 2010). The TAPIR initially was constructed and cross-validated using exclusively English-speaking participants from the United States; however, research using the TriPM has been increasingly conducted internationally, with numerous foreign language translations of the measure emerging. The present study examined the cross-language utility of the TAPIR in German, Dutch, Swedish, and Italian translations of the TriPM using 6 archival samples of community members, university students, forensic psychiatric inpatients, forensic detainees, and adolescents residing outside the United States (combined N = 5,404). Findings suggest that the TAPIR effectively detects careless responding across these 4 translated versions of the TriPM without the need for language-specific modifications. The TAPIR total score meaningfully discriminated genuine participant responses from both fully and partially randomly generated data in every sample, and demonstrated further utility in detecting fixed "all true" or "all false" response patterns. In addition, TAPIR scores were reliably associated with inconsistent responding scores from another psychopathy inventory. Specificity for a range of tentative cut scores for assessing profile validity was modestly reduced among our samples relative to rates previously obtained with the English version of the TriPM; however, overall the TAPIR appears to demonstrate satisfactory cross-language generalizability. (PsycINFO Database Record

Convergence of Self-Reports and Informant Reports on the Personality Assessment Screener.

The present study is the first to investigate the Personality Assessment Screener, a brief self-report measure of risk for emotional and behavioral dysfunction, in relation to the informant report version of this instrument, the Personality Assessment Screener-Other. Among a sample of undergraduate roommate dyads ( N = 174), self-report and informant report total scores on the Personality Assessment Screener/Personality Assessment Screener-Other moderately converged ( r = 0.45), with generally greater agreement between perspectives observed for externalizing behaviors compared with internalizing distress. In addition, selves tended to report more psychological difficulties relative to informant ratings ( d = 0.45) with an average absolute discrepancy between sources of 6.31 ( SD = 4.96) out of a possible range of 66. Discrepancies between self-report and informant report were significantly associated with characteristics of the dyadic relationship (e.g., length of acquaintanceship) as well as the severity of self-reported psychological difficulties and positive impression management.