Violent behavior and differential WAIS characteristics.

Used Q-factor analytic techniques to analyze the WAIS profiles of 30 17-73 yr old white males recently admitted to a maximum security unit for the criminally insane at a midwestern state hospital. The 15 Ss incarcerated for commission of violent crimes tended to have similar subtest score configurations. Subsequent investigation indicated that these WAIS profiles could be described as a simple ratio of the Similarities score to the total of all 11 subtest scores. The mean Similarities ratio score for the violent group was significantly lower than that of the nonviolent group in both the original and cross-validation samples. Results indicate the potential value of research efforts that simultaneously evaluate measures of related deficits in abstract reasoning, left temporal lobe dysfunctioning, and violent behavior on the same Ss. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)