Homelessness and Response Styles on the Personality Assessment Inventory in a Compensation-Seeking Sample

Abstract

The relationship between validity measures of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991) and homelessness was investigated in this archival study. Two groups (N = 50) of compensation-seeking adults were included: homeless and domiciled. The purpose of the study was to determine if differences existed between these 2 groups on the validity measures of the PAI to inform the clinical evaluations of the compensation-seeking homeless. Results of independent sample t tests indicated no significant differences between the homeless and domiciled groups on the 4 validity scales and 2 additional indexes of exaggerated responding (Malingering Index [Morey, 1996] and Rogers Discriminant Function [Rogers, Sewell, Morey, & Ustad, 1996]). Results suggested the compensation-seeking homeless have similar elevations on the PAI validity indexes as domiciled groups seeking compensation.