WAIS Ethical and Clinical Application 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A school psychologist uses the WAIS-IV to evaluate a 17-year-old for special education eligibility. Who must provide informed consent for this evaluation?
- Only the student, since they are nearly an adult
- The student's parent or legal guardian, with assent from the student (Correct answer)
- The school principal on behalf of the student
- No consent is required for educational evaluations
Correct answer: The student's parent or legal guardian, with assent from the student
For minors, informed consent must be obtained from the parent or guardian, while the student should be provided assent appropriate to their developmental level.
Question 2: Which factor most threatens the ecological validity of a WAIS-IV assessment conducted in an unfamiliar clinical setting?
- The examinee's educational background
- Test anxiety and environmental stressors that may suppress actual performance (Correct answer)
- The psychologist's level of experience
- The examinee's native language
Correct answer: Test anxiety and environmental stressors that may suppress actual performance
Environmental and psychological factors like anxiety can cause scores to underestimate an individual's true cognitive abilities.
Question 3: A forensic psychologist administers the WAIS-IV to determine intellectual disability in a death penalty case. The primary ethical obligation unique to this context is:
- Using only the most recent version of the WAIS
- Recognizing the adversarial nature of the context and maintaining objectivity rather than advocacy (Correct answer)
- Refusing to testify to protect the examinee's confidentiality
- Administering the test twice to ensure reliability
Correct answer: Recognizing the adversarial nature of the context and maintaining objectivity rather than advocacy
Forensic psychologists must remain objective and not become advocates for either side, even in high-stakes capital cases.
Question 4: The 'Flynn Effect' has significant ethical implications for WAIS-IV interpretation in forensic settings primarily because:
- It causes the WAIS-IV to overestimate crystallized intelligence
- Older test norms inflate current IQ scores, potentially misclassifying individuals near diagnostic cutoffs (Correct answer)
- It only affects verbal reasoning subtests
- The effect reverses when the test is given in clinical versus forensic settings
Correct answer: Older test norms inflate current IQ scores, potentially misclassifying individuals near diagnostic cutoffs
As population IQ scores rise over time, older norms make current scores appear lower, which can affect diagnoses like intellectual disability.
Question 5: A client asks to see their WAIS-IV raw data and completed answer booklet after an evaluation. According to APA ethical guidelines, the psychologist should:
- Provide all raw materials without any conditions
- Provide a copy of the report but protect raw test data from direct release to prevent misuse (Correct answer)
- Deny access entirely because test security supersedes client rights
- Forward all materials to the client's insurance company instead
Correct answer: Provide a copy of the report but protect raw test data from direct release to prevent misuse
APA ethics balance client access rights with test security obligations by releasing reports to clients while protecting raw protocols.
Question 6: When interpreting WAIS-IV results for an older adult (age 75+), the clinician must ethically consider:
- That all older adults will score in the impaired range due to normal aging
- Age-corrected norms and whether observed declines reflect normal aging versus pathological processes (Correct answer)
- Administering only the Processing Speed subtests to save time
- That the WAIS-IV is not validated for use with adults over 70
Correct answer: Age-corrected norms and whether observed declines reflect normal aging versus pathological processes
The WAIS-IV provides age-based normative comparisons, and clinicians must distinguish normal cognitive aging from neurological conditions.
Question 7: A psychologist working in a rural area is asked to evaluate a client for whom no in-person testing is feasible. The ethically preferred approach for telehealth-based WAIS-IV administration is to:
- Administer all subtests via video exactly as in-person
- Acknowledge the limitations of remote assessment, obtain specialized training, and document departures from standard conditions (Correct answer)
- Decline the evaluation since any deviation from in-person testing is unethical
- Use a non-validated computerized version without informing the client
Correct answer: Acknowledge the limitations of remote assessment, obtain specialized training, and document departures from standard conditions
Telehealth assessment requires awareness of psychometric limitations, informed consent about those limitations, and documentation of any non-standard conditions.
WAIS Ethical and Clinical Application 3
A school psychologist uses the WAIS-IV to evaluate a 17-year-old for special education eligibility.
Who must provide informed consent for this evaluation?