THE QUANTITATIVE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RORSCHACH AND WAIS-IV: PATTERN DIFFERENCES IN IQ PROFILES

Background: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV (WAIS-IV) and Rorschach Inkblot Test are often included in diagnostic routines by most of the clinicians to measure the “Performance” from two different points of view; while WAIS-IV is used to analyse intelligence and cognitive abilities, Rorschach measures how a subject respond, both emotively and cognitively, to unstructured stimuli. Methods: The full study sample (N=34) was sorted into three groups based on the IQ score obtained by the WAIS test. Groups were composed in the following way: IQ lower than 69 (N=19); IQ ranging from 70 to 99 (N=6); IQ higher than 100(N=9). Statistical analysis: To analyse differences between groups we used a univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA). In addiction differences between groups were deeply analysed using Bonferroni Post-hoc Test. Results: The ANOVA analysis shows that moderate differences exist between the groups for the parameters Zd, Zsum, S, M, Zf, R (p=0.05). On the other hand, strongly significant differences were found on the following parameters WSC, Complexity, Human responses, Animal detail, unusual form quality, W (p=0.01). Discussion: The results show how the analyses carried out provide statistically significant characteristics to detect a prototypical profile of a subject with a diagnosis of intellectual disability. Considering also legal and social medicine aspects, the identification of these patterns represents a substantial help for clinicians to recognize the "state of handicap" useful to access to the benefits provided by Italian welfare state and especially by law 104/92.