William G. Klett

Suicide and the MMPI: A Cross-Validation of Predictors.

Compared a suicide-completion group to a psychiatric control sample on the 13 traditional MMPI scales, three experimental item pools, and eight profile patterns earlier described as indicative of suicidal tendencies (N = 84). Also compared the frequencies with which the groups endorsed each of the 566 MMPI items. The number of resulting significant differences was less than chance. The results argue against the use of the MMPI to predict suicide at this time.

Prediction of the Wais scores from the 1973 Henmon‐Nelson revision

Administered the 1973 revision of the Henmon-Nelson and the WAIS to 100 psychiatric patients. The correlation of Henmon-Nelson raw scores with WAIS Full Scale scaled score was .83, which compared favorably with correlations run between several other short IQ tests and the WAIS in similar samples drawn from the same setting in earlier studies. However, the Henmon-Nelson did not appear able to estimate the WAIS IQs of low-intelligence Ss or aged persons with consistent accuracy. The validities of short IQ tests and current practices in the selection of WAIS surrogates were discussed.

The Henmon-Nelson and Slosson tests as predictors of WAIS-R IQ

Previous research has indicated that the Slosson Intelligence Test and the Henmon-Nelson Test of Mental Ability are better estimators of WAIS IQ scores than most other brief intellectual measures. In the present study we compared the abilities of the most recent editions of the two tests to estimate WAIS-R scaled scores and IQs (N = 90). The Henmon-Nelsons validity coefficients were higher than their counterparts for the Slosson, but the Slosson had a higher ceiling and a lower floor, which suggests that it is more valuable with particularly dull and especially bright subjects. Both the Slosson IQs and Henmon-Nelson standard scores had higher means and more variability than WAIS-R Full Scale IQs. The data suggested that the most accurate WAIS-R approximations can be achieved by converting Slosson or Henmon-Nelson scores to WAIS-R scaled score estimates and translating the latter to WAIS-R IQs by using Wechslers age-corrected tables.

PERFORMANCE OF AINU AND JAPANESE SIX-YEAR-OLDS ON THE GOODENOUGH-HARRIS DRAWING TEST

The Goodenough-Harris Drawing Test was administered to 22 Ainu and 30 Japanese 6-yr.-olds. The mean scores of the total Japanese sample and the Japanese boys were significantly higher than their Ainu counterparts, while the difference between the girls approached significance. The differences suggest that the Japanese boys were functioning at a higher level than their Ainu counterparts. However, it is important to note that both groups performed at a much higher level than the American norm group. The implications of the results are discussed.

Identification of Suicidal Episodes with the MMPI

Previous research has not identified MMPI scales, patterns or item sets capable of separating eventual suicide committers from non-committers. Looking for MMPI scales associated with a short-term suicide state, we compared the scores of people who had committed suicide soon after taking the inventory with those of people who killed themselves more than three months later. The Suicide Episode group showed a significantly higher mean score than the Remote Suicide sample on Paranoia, and near-significant differences appeared on six other scales. These results suggest that it may be possible to identify a suicide state with the MMPI, but further research should precede clinical application of these findings.