An abbreviation of the WISC for clinical use.

The present study was designed to test a short form of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) on a sample of emotionally disturbed children. The present findings support the usefulness of the abbreviated WISC form, except for subjects in the Bright Normal and Superior Ranges of intelligence. These ranges comprise roughly 25% of the children in the normal population. Although the correlations between the two forms were impressive when analyzed on the combined sample and by age levels, the correlations (scales and subtests) did drop appreciably in the upper IQ ranges when analyzed by level of Full Scale IQ. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

WISC performance in acting-out and delinquent children with and without EEG abnormality.

To evaluate the relationship between EEG status and intelligence test performance, the WISC scores of 139 nondefective, acting-out and delinquent children referred for psychiatric evaluation were examined. The distribution of Verbal IQ-Performance IQ (VIQ-PIQ) discrepancies was compared with that reported for the WISC standardization population. Girls did not differ significantly from the standardization population, but boys showed a significantly larger proportion with PIQ > VIQ than in the standardization population. Neither boys nor girls showed significant differences in scores between groups with abnormal EEGs and those with normal and borderline EEGs. (18 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Electrodermal reactivity and rated behavior in emotionally disturbed children.

A group of 34 emotionally disturbed children was subdivided according to 2 measures of electrodermal reactivity and the resulting subgroups were compared on 18 rating scales. The High reactors showed less appropriate affectivity, and tended to be less active motorically. It was concluded that Jone's concept of internalization should be redefined to exclude the implication that high autonomic reactivity accompanied by socially adjustive behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stability of personal and social preferences in emotionally disturbed and normal children.

Preferences for friends, colors, and food were studied in institutionalized disturbed children and normal elementary school children, subgrouped at 3 age levels. Stability of preferences for friends and for food indicated at the beginning and end of a 20-min. interval revealed an orderly developmental progression within the normal group. Such consistent developmental trends were not found within the disturbed group and comparison with the normal children showed significantly higher proportions of stable friendship choices and stable food preferences in the normal group. No significant differences in stability of color preferences were found either within or between the groups. Attitudinal stability, within the limits of this exploratory investigation, tended to be specific to each of the 3 areas rather than a general personality characteristic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparison of the WISC and WAIS at chronological age sixteen.

A group of 30 Ss was tested with the WISC and 4 wk. later with the WAIS. During this interval they all passed their 16th birthdays. Since chronological age is constant, correlations were calculated for the various IQ scales of the 2 tests and indicated that IQs obtained at age 16 from the 2 scales are highly comparable. The mean IQs and standard deviations of the experimental groups were not significantly different from the mean IQs and standard deviations of the standardization groups. In the case of the Full Scale IQ, differences in individual Ss ranged from -11 to +13 points with a mean at +2.4 points (WAIS -WISC). In general, the results indicate that the transition from the WISC to the WAIS at age 16 introduces no significant errors in IQ determination. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social schemata of emotionally disturbed boys.

2 experiments, using Kuethe's techniques were designed to demonstrate that children defined as emotionally disturbed differ predictably from normal children in the ways they organize social stimuli. When emotionally disturbed and normal boys placed pairs of felt figures on flannel boards, normals placed child figures closer to mother than to father or peer figures; emotionally disturbed children did the reverse. When disturbed and normal boys replaced pairs of human and geometric figures previously set 15 in. apart, the disturbed boys replaced the human figures farther apart than the nonhuman figures significantly more often than did the normals. Results were interpreted as reflecting a tendency for emotionally disturbed children to construe people, and especially females, more negatively than do normal children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An abbreviated form of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children.

This study was done in an attempt to determine a valid short form of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children for a clinical population of reading disability cases. The subject group included all those children between the ages of 9 and 12, inclusive, referred to the Child Study Center at George Peabody College for Teachers in 1960 and 1961 as possible reading disability cases. A four-subtest combination consisting of Similarities, Object Assembly, Arithmetic, and Picture Arrangement correlated .947 with Full Scale score. The addition of either Vocabulary or Picture Completion yielded a correlation of .959. Since there were more than twice as many boys as girls in the sample, the data were analyzed for sex differneces. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differentiation of abilities, socioeconomic status, and the WISC.

The study investigated the effect of an increase in age on the factor structures of the subtests of the WISC, and the relationship between subtest scores and socioeconomic status (SES). The scores of 70 Ss, tested at ages 10 and 12, were factor analyzed and structures at the 2 age levels compared. The sample was also divided into high and low SES groups, and subtest means calculated for each group. At both age levels, between-group mean differences were significant at or beyond the .05 level of confidence in the case of verbal subtests, while factor structures, which were similar, indicated a trend towards integration of abilities. The structures defined 2 main factors, identified as verbal and performance IQ, respectively. (31 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Frequency of the Rorschach human-movement response in Negro and White emotionally disturbed children.

The study was concerned with testing the following hypotheses: (a) Emotionally disturbed, young Negro children produce more human-movement (M) responses on the Rorschach than do comparable white children; (b) emotionally disturbed Negro children show a decrease in M production as they approach adolescence, whereas comparable white children increase M production as they approach adolescence. The Ss, 197 Negro and 196 white emotionally disturbed children 5-17 yr. were administered a standard test battery which included the Rorschach. Results corroborated the hypotheses for Negro males. In addition, a significant increase in M production among emotionally disturbed Negro males 7-9 yr. was found. Implications of the findings and specific suggestions for further research were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Time orientation and interpersonal relations of emotionally disturbed and normal children.

5 hypotheses about time-orientation and interpersonal relations were tested using 11-year-old boys in a residential psychiatric treatment center, summer camp, and public school. To investigate time-orientation a story-completion method was used, and to measure interpersonal relations assessments of fluctuations in friendship patterns were made. The emotionally disturbed children showed more unstable friendship patterns, although their story completions were not more present-oriented. In the disturbed group, the more present-oriented a child was on the fantasy measure, the more stable were his friendships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The postwar occupational adjustment of emotionally disturbed soldiers.

2 assumptions regarding personnel policy in this area were tested on data of premature separations during World War II and a matched control group. Greater unemployment existed for men with history of psychosis. A downward shift in occupational level was present for neurotic histories but was not found for employed "psychotics." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neurological implications of WISC verbal-performance discrepancies in a psychiatric setting.

20 children with at least a 25-point difference between the WISC Verbal and Performance IQs (in either direction) were compared with 20 matched control Ss from the same hospital population. The criterion Ss with Verbal IQs at least 25 points higher than Performance IQs had significantly more medical diagnoses of brain damage, more pathological signs on neurological examinations, more abnormal electroencephalograms, and poorer performance on many psychological tests sensitive to brain damage. Those children with Performance IQs that were 25 points or more higher than Verbal IQs were found not to differ from their controls on any of the brain-injury indicators. A 35-variable correlation matrix was computed. The Lincoln-Oseretsky Motor Development Scale raw scores correlated -7.6 with the neurological examination ratings. (25 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

WISC–III index score profiles of 520 Swedish children with pervasive developmental disorders.

WISC–III (Wechsler, 1991) index score profiles and their characteristics were examined with traditional statistics in a large Swedish sample consisting of children with autistic disorder (n = 85), Asperger's disorder (n = 341), or pervasive developmental disorders not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS; n = 94). There was a clear and significant difference in level between children with Asperger's disorder, who performed in the average range according to the Swedish standardization, and children with either autistic disorder or PDD-NOS, who performed below the average range (almost 2 standard deviations below the mean), but few other differences between the diagnostic groups were found. The variation in this sample, compared with the Swedish standardization, was generally larger in regard to the size of standard deviations and to the proportion of individuals who exhibited significant differences between indices. The result implied that a WISC–III profile could not be used to discriminate between the different PDDs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-concept, mother concept, and food aversions in emotionally disturbed and normal children.

Self-concept was measured via an adjective check list and a self-rating task (child asked to compare himself to others on traits); mother-child relationship was inferred from responses to specific cards of the Blacky test and a story completion test; food aversion was measured from a food preference list. In general, the self-concept and mother-concept were related and there was an inverse relation between these and food aversion. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4FF09D. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teaching adaptive responses to frustration to emotionally disturbed boys.

An instructional approach was used with 6 emotionally disturbed boys to increase their adaptive behavior in response to frustration. The instructed adaptive responses did become part of the boys' verbal response repertory, and their overt behavior in the experimental frustrating situations was more positively evaluated coincident with the teaching procedure while their behavior in the control situations remained relatively unchanged. The results of the study suggest that a fairly specific cognitive approach can be of use in the modification of maladaptive behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Follow-up study of children identified early as emotionally disturbed.

2 consecutive groups of 1st-grade children classified for their potential for being emotionally disturbed were reexamined upon reaching 7th grade. Children manifesting high potential for being disturbed (labeled Red Tag) were compared, on school record and special test measures, with peers evidencing low potential for disturbance (labeled Non-Red Tag). These measures reflected achievement, classroom behavior, peer perceptions, attendance, and school nurse referral. Both groups of Red Tag children scored significantly more negatively than Non-Red Tag children on 10 of 47 measures in one case and on 13 of 42 in the other. These findings support the hypothesis that early disturbance in children is not ephemeral and is a portent for later difficulty. Implications of such results for programs in early identification and prevention were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Responses of emotionally disturbed and nondisturbed retardates to PPVT items of human versus nonhuman content.

On the basis of scores obtained by the Shipe behavior rating scale, 40 institutionalized, mildly retarded children and adolescents were classified as emotionally disturbed and 20 as nondisturbed. The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) was administered to all Ss and relative successes on items with human and nonhuman content determined. All Ss found the items with human content more difficult than those with nonhuman content; however, the disturbed Ss had significantly more difficulty than the nondisturbed on PPVT items with human content relative to items with nonhuman content. It is speculated that a past history of disturbed interpersonal relationships interfered with the efficiency of the disturbed individuals on human items. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Seeing the forest for the trees: Prevalence of low scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, fourth edition (WISC-IV).

Low scores across a battery of tests are common in healthy people and vary by demographic characteristics. The purpose of the present article was to present the base rates of low scores for the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, fourth edition (WISC-IV; D. Wechsler, 2003). Participants included 2,200 children and adolescents between 6 and 16 years of age from the WISC-IV U.S. standardization sample. Measures considered in the base rates analyses included the 10 core subtests and the 4 index scores. Analyses were conducted for the entire standardization sample as well as stratified by different classifications of intelligence and different years of parental education. In the total sample, it is uncommon to have 6 or more subtest scores or 2 or more Index scores ≤ 9th percentile. The prevalence of low scores typically increased with lesser intelligence and fewer years of parental education (e.g., children with below-average intelligence were 75 times more likely than children with above-intelligence to have at least one impaired subtest score). Consistent with existing studies of the base rates of low scores, some low scores on the WISC-IV were common in children and adolescents, and the frequency was related to a child's level of intelligence and parental education. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of reinforcement and response-cost on cognitive style in emotionally disturbed boys.

The "fear of failure" hypothesis of J. Kagan and N. Kogan (1970) was investigated in 40 emotionally disturbed boys (mean age 11.28 yrs). The Matching Familiar Figures Test was used. Fear of failure was maximized through a response–cost procedure and minimized with a contingent reinforcement condition. Both techniques significantly increased latencies on reflection–impulsivity and decreased errors; however, impulsives made significantly fewer errors in the response–cost condition, whereas reflectives made somewhat fewer errors in the reinforcement condition. Although the reflection–impulsivity dimension was a relatively stable trait, results indicate that one's cognitive style is particularly a function of existing environmental contingencies. Findings are discussed in terms of future research and potential treatment strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children: Review of a decade of research.

The several aspects of validity, psychometric properties and diagnostic capabilities of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) are critically examined. Among the many limitations of the test perhaps the most serious is the lack of an adequate theoretical rationale which makes assessment of validity difficult. On the positive side the standardization of the WISC is relatively good and it correlates consistently well with other measures of intelligence. 76 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)