Validity and usefulness in four wist studies recently reported in the journal

Abstract

Four articles that reported studies that used the Whitaker Index of Schizophrenic Thinking (WIST) were published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology in early 1977. These articles are reviewed by the WIST's author in terms of necessary conditions for valid and useful studies of schizophrenic thinking. Two of the studies reported used the MMPI Sc Scale: one of them failed to note its limitations and used the WIST incorrectly; the other resulted in some useful data. The other two articles report ground-breaking investigations of schizophrenic thinking as conceptual rule-learning inability. They are viewed as providing a valuable new orientation in the study of schizophrenic thinking because they investigate the phenomena first-hand instead of relying simply on ordinary psychiatric diagnosis for a criterion. Some previously unpublished data on the WIST and intelligence relevant to all four studies are reported.

The minimax problem of personal construct organization and schizophrenic thought disorder

“…The items are presented in question-and-answer, multiple-choice format, and are scored objectively from "0" to "4" on the continuum of being correct, loose, reference, clang or nonsense associations. The WIST was administered as outlined in the manual (Whitaker, 1973). The scores used to measure thought disorder in this study were the sums of errors for each of the three subtests (Similarities, Word Pairs, and New Inventions), and the Total Score, for each form.…”

“…It presents the added advantage of continuous scores to differentiate between degrees of thought disorder, and has been found effective in discriminating non-thought-disordered patients from those who are mildly and more severely impaired (Pishkin, Lovallo, Lenk, & Bourne, 1977). The WIST has been used in a number of recent studies, which are summarized by Whitaker (1978). It is constructed in two structurally parallel forms (Form A and Form B).…”

Standardization of the Whitaker index of schizophrenic thinking (WIST) in a Mexican population: A multivariable study

“…The WIST was developed in the United States to be applied to English-speaking populations, and there have been major validity studies in the United States (e.g., Whitaker, 1973Whitaker, , 1978Whitaker, , 1980 and in Canada (Leslie, Landmark, & Whitaker, 1984). However, Yaroush (1982) administered a German version in West Germany, and Acevedo, Gonzalez, Puente, and Whitaker (1985) reported the results of administration of a Spanish version in Puerto Rico.…”

Objective assessment of schizophrenic thinking

“…"Laboratory studies and special testing procedures have not yet demonstrated their utility in establishing diagnosis in this syndrome [Astrachan, Harrow, Adler, Brauer, Schwartz, & Tucker, 1972, p. 5301.'' This continued lack of objective assassment may be due in part to wide recognition that there is neither a single generally accepted theory of schizophrenic thinking nor, consequently, one generally accepted device, method or "test" for its measurement or identification (Chapman I% Chapman, 1973;Whitaker, 1978).…”