The Clinical Use and Interpretation of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children

by Shawn Cooper

The present volume reviews the background, development, and psychometric properties of the WISC-III, and describes several frameworks which are felt relevant to the use of the ethics, context, path, and belief, as these concepts apply to the examiner who utilizes the WISC-III clinically. The author also describes several models - a gradient, non-gradient, hierarchy, and a systems perspective - as additional views that are important in the conceptualization of the testing process with the WISC-III. Finally, the author presents a specific model for the intellectual assessment of children and adolescents, discusses the application of this model to the clinical use of the WISC-III, and provides a detailed discussion of test administration, as well as of the characteristics and interpretation of each WISC-III subtest. The book also presents a new approach to the provision of feedback on the test to the examinee, and discusses the interpretation of the WISC-III from the perspectives of factor analysis, the ACID profile, Bannatyne's recategorization approach, Horn's fluid-crystallized model, and Kaufman's profile analysis. The author also describes and comprehensively discusses a new format for the writing of the psychological report based on the concepts presented earlier in the book. Finally, in a section on Special Topics, the author deals with Bias and the Wechsler Scales Medication and Psychological Testing, Computers and the WISC-III, and closes with a concluding comment that includes a discussion of the relationship between psychological testing and public health. The book is intended for graduate students or practitioners in clinical or school psychology, and the author believes the concepts presented are relevant to intellectual assessment as well as to other forms of evaluation, consultation, and intervention.

442 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1997