Borderline Pathology and the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI): An Evaluation of Criterion and Concurrent Validity

Abstract

In this study, we examined how patients diagnosed with borderline pathology (BP) would respond on the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991) Borderline (BOR) scales in relation to patients without BP pathology. In addition, we examined whether the PAI BOR scales would be related to variables on the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale (SCORS; Hilsenroth, Stein, & Pinsker, 2004; Westen, 1995) derived from early memory narratives. Results indicate that outpatients with a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed. [DSM-IV]; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) diagnosis of BP scored significantly higher on the PAI BOR Total (BOR-Total) score, Identity Problems, and Self- Harm scales in comparison to a Non-BP clinical sample. The overall correct classification rate for the presence or absence of BP using the BOR Total scale (T >or= 70) was 73%. In addition, there were several significant relationships between dimensional PAI BOR scales and the presence versus absence of DSM-IV BP. Moreover, both the BOR-Total and Affect Instability scales were significantly related to the SCORS variable Complexity of Representations. We provide clinical examples to illustrate these research findings in an applied manner.

The Lack of Negative Affects as an Indicator for Identity Disturbance in Borderline Personality Disorder: A Preliminary Report

“…These findings support the theory of BPD which highlights these patients' difficulties in verbalizing their affects in interpersonal relationships [49][50][51] ; rather they would show their affects and emotions in their behavior, which could activate problems in interpersonal interactions. Particularly the exploration of identity seems to activate primitive defensive operations, such as splitting, which are characterized by important behavioral components rather than by verbal communication [27] .…”

Relationship between the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale (SCORS) and attachment style in a clinical sample

“…Additionally, we were not able to use two of the SCORS variables (e.g., EIM and ICS) in the present study due to poor reliability. While the SCORS has been repeatedly shown to be a reliable measure (Eudell-Simmons, Stein, DeFife, & Hilsenroth, 2005;Fowler, Hilsenroth, & Handler, 1995;Fowler et al, 2004;Porcerelli, Cogan, & Hibbard, 1998;Stein et al, 2007), reliability for these two variables were questionable in the present study and thus unavailable for use. This is particularly unfortunate with regards to EIM, which we expected would differ considerable across attachment types.…”

Assessment of borderline pathology using the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems Circumplex Scales (IIP‐C): a comparison of clinical samples

“…The inter-rater reliability for the classification of personality pathology across three dimensions-(1) presence of a personality disorder; (2) presence of subclinical traits/features; and (3) absence of a personality disorder-was found to be excellent (i.e., ICC > 0.74; Shrout & Fleiss, 1979) for this project Peters et al, 2006). In addition, inter-rater reliability for the presence or absence of BPD pathology was also found to be quite high (Kappa = 0.74; Stein, Pinsker-Aspen, & Hilsenroth, 2007). Finally, each participant provided written informed consent to be included in this research.…”