Date of Award

Summer 1957

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Psychology

Abstract

Business and Industry is turning more and more to the use of standardized psychological tests as an aid in the selection and placement of personnel. Many concerns want to have, along with all other pertinent information, a measure of a potential employee's general intelligence. Therefore, some sort of intelligence test is found in their test batteries. Management, in most cases, prefers these various tests to be as simple as possible in their administration and evaluation, thus avoiding unnecessary time am expense. There are a number of short intelligence tests which meet the above requirement One of these, the Wonderlic Personnel Test, is used widely in business and industry.

The Wonderlic Personnel Test is a restandardized abridgment of the Otis Self-administering Test of Mental Ability, Higher Form. It is particularly adapted to the needs of business and industry in that it is practically self-administering and can be given an:l scored b7 a trained clerk. The Wonderlic is called a personnel test,rather than an intelligence test, in order to lessen the hesitancy and fear that is often created in persons taking mental ability tests.

The purpose of thisttudy was to compare the Wonderlic Personnel Test with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, or the WAIS as it is communally called. The WAIS is the most carefully standardized test of general intelligence available, and its validity has been proven in numerous studies. The Wonderlic Personnel Test al.so purport.a to measure general intelligence, but it lacks the research and study that has been given to the WAIS. Considering the wide use or the Wonderlic as a test of mental ability, a validity study with the well-standardized WAIS as a criterion seems desirable.

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