THE WECHSLER OBJECT ASSEMBLY SUBTEST AND BODILY CONCERNS.

Abstract

This study was designed to evaluate a hypothesis drawn from clinical impressions and from suggestive incidental data of prior research that concerns about body intactness will be reflected in a Wechsler subtest pattern where the Object Assembly (OA) score is lower than those of other subtests. OA scores were found to be significantly lower in children with bodily concerns than in a control group, and there were no other significant differences on other Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) subtests. In addition, Rorschachs of adult patients with low and high OA scores were compared and there was a significantly greater percentage of Rorschach responses indicating bodily concern in the group scoring low in OA. These findings are discussed in relation to the assessment of cognitive processes and ego functions in diagnostic testing, the process of clinical inference and prior research on body image. When Wechsler originally developed the intelligence scales, he saw their primary function as a valid and reliable evaluation of global intelligence and only secondarily as a technique for personality assessment (Wechsler, 1944). With the development of ego psychology, however, intelligence has been more clearly conceptualized as an integral part of the total personality structure. One of the basic assumptions in psychoanalytic ego psychology is that cognitive processes, as expressed in a variety of problem-solving situations, reflect important dimensions of personality organization. Cognitive processes convey information about adaptive and defensive functions, levels of ego organization, and the relative degree of control over the intrusion of more fantasydetermined and conflict-laden material into adaptive endeavors.