The use of Doppelt's short form of the Wechsler adult intelligence scale with psychiatric patients.

Abstract

In a recent paper, Doppelt (1) proposed an abbreviation of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) which would provide the examiner with an adequate estimate of the subject's IQ without giving all eleven subtests of the scale. His short form is composed of four subtests: Arithmetic, Vocabulary, Block Designs, and Picture Arrangement. Using the population in the national standardization of the WAIS (2), he obtained a correlation coefficient between the sum of these four subtests and the Full Scale score of approximately .96. Regression equations were computed for various age groups for use in predicting the Full Scale score from the sum of the four subtests. The standard error of estimate was determined to be approximately 7 scaled score points (4.2 IQ points). To check his predictive equations, Doppelt applied them to two groups of subjects not used in his statistical analysis and found that in 71% of his cases the differences between his obtained and estimated Full Scale scores were within one standard error (±7) ; two standard errors (±14) contained 96% of the cases. Since Doppelt's procedure appears to permit an adequate estimate of the IQ in a relatively brief period of time, it is potentially of considerable usefulness in many situations. The question arises, however, whether such an abbreviated procedure, derived from data obtained from a presumably normal population, can be employed reliably in an emotionally disturbed population. There is considerable evidence, for instance, that schizophrenic patients show significantly greater subtest scatter than do normals (3). The purpose of this study, therefore, is to determine whether the Doppelt short form of the WAIS would provide adequate estimates of the Full Scale scores in a disturbed population.