The Pros And Cons Of The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Test

When one speaks of intelligence or how bright another person is, the often quoted figure is the IQ or intelligence quotient. It is the most often used standard of how smart a person is. This paper shall look at what intelligence tests measure, how the IQ tests measure intelligence and interrogate their history. It shall then apply the tests to school policy and hence evaluate their validity.

Amy Tan also felt that standardized tests could not accurately determine a person’s intelligence. She effectively makes her argument by using rhetorical devices such as, “I wanted to capture what language ability tests could never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her thoughts” (Tan 768). When she said that standard tests cannot determine a person's true intelligence, she was trying to say how people have different ways of thinking and different types of intelligence, and yet these standard tests only can measure a certain type of intelligence; therefore it really is kind of unfair, for lack of a better term.

This paper discusses the pros and cons of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-III). First, important definitional, theoretical issues, including the nature of intelligence, a brief history, and pros and cons are discussed. Next, the development, reliability, validity, and assets and limitations of the WAIS-III are examined. This is followed by discussion of the meaning of IQ scores, use of successive level interpretation and cautions and guidelines for administration. Last, subtests, assessing special population groups, short forms, profile forms, and what a

The main purpose of addressing the issue is to prove IQ scored is biased and spurious .Various articles and research papers prove that IQ scores fail to reflect a person’s intelligence. This top-ic is important because due to flawed IQ scores every year, many students are assigned to the wrong class, for example an intelligent student with a low IQ score is assigned to easier class and a student with a high IQ score who may not be intelligent in a particular field is assigned to a higher level class which can be difficult for that student. IQ Tests need to be redesigned to re-pair this major flaw in our academic system

Also, in the early 1900’s there were different intelligence test conducted mainly to “justify racial and ethnic discrimination”. According to the understanding race website, “The results of these intelligence tests were influential in shaping U.S. immigration policy that limited immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, and in justifying race-based segregation in public education, and U.S. conscription during World War I. Previously, the scientific debate centered largely on perceived differences in racial intelligence based on cranial size”. (Science: 1900s-1930s Race and Intelligence)

The issue of cultural bias in intelligence tests sparks debates every time the latter is created or administered, resulting to many researches into how the reliability and validity of an ability test may differ when assessed on groups from different cultural-linguistic backgrounds. The aim of this study is to test the reliability and validity of the PSYGAT Verbal IQ Test on university students from English-speaking backgrounds (ESB) and non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB) in relation to the Queendom Verbal IQ Test and Cultural Fair IQ Test. 445 third year psychology students aged 19 to 62 were involved in this

Many groups consider this exam beneficial to certain groups but oppress other diverse groups such as African Americans, Latino and Native Americans. Education will be taught differently depending on their location and their population. Afterall, schools hire what their budgets can afford. While some schools could afford to hire teachers, who may have a higher education, others are not as fortunate. This could have an impact and influence on skills that are taught such as test taking skills. Assessment such as the IQ test contribute to the minority groups and their education system. If the result is low, they will have a higher chance of oppression as a result of the school or district they attended affecting the cultural group(s)

“Blacks still score below 75 percent of American whites on most standardized tests” (Jencks and Phillips). The belief that intelligence and aptitude are innate seems to be especially important in discussions of racial differences (Jencks and Phillips 6). White Americans score closer on IQ tests to other white populations across the globe than to the worldwide black average (Saletan 1). An important question that may come to mind is whether intelligence tests biased. Intelligence tests are likely to be culturally biased when a standardized test reflects what is learned through experience in a culture that does not regard to another race as highly (Young). For instance, if a standardized test result represented an ingroup preference exclusively than it may only measure a specific part of intelligence; for example the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, WAIS, is more verbal while the Raven's Progressive Matrices, RPM, is more visual (Young). This may cause a majority of individuals with autism to do better on the RPM due to autistic students connecting with images rather than words. Young has stated that intelligence tests that only focus on certain neurological criterias and are not well indicators of intelligence due to it not equally indicating all types of intellect. Yet a majority of psychologists now agree that intelligence tests measure developed

According to Nesbitt (2005), other researchers misrepresented standardized tests by associating intellect with heritability. IQ testing to dissimilar cultural groups/people with disability opposes questions as to what IQ really measures. According to Arnold et al (2011), IQ testing generates a floor effect when pertained to people with lower IQ's. Example, in a practice IQ scores beneath a definite cut-off are still being utilized to conclude and categorize an individual’s intelligent disability. An alternative explanation to this matter would be to evaluate people from dissimilar culture groups and or those with mental retardation and incapacities with more than standardized tests. As for the natural bias for the mentally retarded, individuals should be assesses based on their needs, and the atmosphere influenced within their lives.

Intelligence testing is rather arbitrary as people can have many kinds of intelligence strengths and it's difficult to assign a measure of intelligence without flaws in the system. Though there are attempts at keeping standardization and norms to keep results unbiased and consistent there are still failings, which the most viable of those failings is that with intelligence testing and capital punishment such as the case of Daryl Atkins. Atkins was tested at an intelligence quotient of 59, which is about half the average score of 100 ("Module 7.5: Measures of Intelligence"., n.d.). The original jury had sentenced a mentally impaired man to death until it was taken to the Supreme Court where they ruled that it would be a cruel and unusual punishment,

Intelligence tests are inaccurate to measures true ability of a person because genes affect how a person responds to their surroundings, the tests cannot measure the person biological makeup or his true potential for being “smart”.

In 1904, a French psychologist (Alfred Binet) created the first intelligence test in order to help the French Ministry of Education segregate children that may have difficulty learning in a regular classroom. At that time, he did not know that his test would be the basis for IQ tests administered over 100 years later. He has a Stanford University psychologist, Lewis Terman, to thank for expanding his work and creating the Stanford-Binet intelligence test that took root in the United States in 1916 and is still popular today. However, along with its popularity came criticism. Critics see the current version of the Stanford - Binet test and other intelligence tests, despite attempts to make them culturally fair, as limiting to individuals who are not from the major social norm. They claim that cultural bias in test questions is why certain races do not perform as well as others on the test.

There is a relationship between intelligence and culture because intelligence is culturally shaped and defined and some cultures support and identify it as very vital in the context of social and ecological aspects. In the early years, there was a bias towards intelligence tests because they used English language and culture. The formation of Wesler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fourth Addition (WAIS,IV) in 2008 by David Wesler was meant to minimise the bias. According to Westen, Burton and Kowalski (2006), intelligence assists human beings to take control of their lives and it varies cross culturally because the power dynamics differ in each society and this leads to differences in behaviour and line of thinking. These authors describe intelligence as multifaceted, functional and can be defined by culture because it is universal and studying intelligence using different culture as a sample that can be used to question Western ideas about intelligence with some emphasis on the assessment of skills and abilities using culturally appropriate methods (Benson, 2003)

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV; Wechsler, 1949). This seminal intelligence scale assesses a child 's general intellectual ability across four domains, producing four corresponding index scores: (1) the Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI), (2) the Visual Spatial Index (VSI), (3) the Working Memory Index (WMI), and finally (4) the Processing Speed Index (PSI). The VCI measures verbal concept formation, specifically assessing children 's ability to listen to a question, draw upon learned information from both formal and informal education, reason through an answer, and express their thoughts aloud. An example item from this index is similarities, vocabulary, and comprehension. Next, the VSI measures non-verbal and fluid reasoning and assesses children 's ability to examine a problem, draw upon visual-motor and visual-spatial skills, organize their thoughts, create solutions, and then test them. An example item from this index is solving a 3D puzzle. The WMI measures working memory and assesses children 's ability to memorize new information, hold it in short-term memory, concentrate, and manipulate that information to produce some result or reasoning processes; an example item would be letter-number sequencing. This measure is particularly important for higher-order thinking, learning, and achievement. Finally, the PSI measures the speed of information processing and assesses children 's abilities to focus attention and quickly scan, discriminate between, and

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV) is a psychological test administered individually as a measure of cognitive ability for people in the age range of 16 to 90 years of age (Climie & Rostad, pp. 581-586, 2011). The administration of this assessment may be performed by trained technicians, however, the Administration and Scoring Manual states that it is imperative that all interpretation should be done by professionals to which have adequate training in and experience with standardized clinical instruments (Wechsler, 2008). The WAIS-IV was published by Pearson in 2008, and was meant to provide comprehensive and modified developmental norms, improve psychometric properties and clinical usefulness, and improve the easiness