The Verbal-Quantitative Differential as an Indicator of Personality Maladjustment

• Main Author: Spencer, Robert W.
• Format: Others
• Published: DigitalCommons@USU 1965
• Subjects: verbal-quantitative differential; personality maladjustment; personality; intelligence; achievement; Psychology
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/5598; https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6641&context=etd

Counseling centers at many universities are constantly trying to improve their value to the universities by identifying the students who have problems, and by making known to students the services that are available. Since many counseling centers are in direct contact with large numbers of students during the admissions testing program, it would seem that data gathered at this time should be carefully examined for clues that would aid a student in making a healthy and profitable adjustment to his university environment. It has been observed by some counselors that students who seek counseling often have a wide difference between their measured Verbal and Quantitative abilities, Other clinical observations have suggested that students with a higher Quantitative than Verbal score often seem more disturbed than those whose Verbal ability exceed their Quantitative ability. In either case, regardless of which ability was high, it has appeared to some counselors that the wider the discrepancy between the two abilities, the more often a problem existed. From the above observations the present study was conceived and undertaken in an attempt to see if differences between Verbal and Quantitative ability scores might serve as a tool in identifying students with problems. Since children normally learn verbal proficiency before acquiring quantitative skills, it was reasoned that if an individual has a high quantitative ability, he should, under normal developmental circumstances, also have an equally developed verbal ability. Therefore, in cases where the Quantitative score is high and the Verbal score is low, it was assumed that somewhere along the developmental growth process the individual may have been deterred, discouraged, or in some way blocked so as to hinder his verbal proficiency. A study by Smith and Triggs (1950) suggested that a student's linguistic skill affects the extent to which he can make use of his quantitative ability. Smith and Triggs' study, along with the untested observations and hypothetical assumptions suggested above formed the basis for the present study.