INTERPRETATION AND MISINTERPRETATION OF THE AFRICAN-WECHSLER-BELLEVUE-ADULT-INTELLIGENCE-SCALE - A HISTORY AND A PROSPECTUS

The South African Wechsler is based on the 1939 Wechsler-Bellevue Adul t Intelligence Scale. However, the name under which it was published b y the National Institute of Personnel Research in 1969, the 'South Afr ican Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale', has led a generation of South African psychologists to believe that this instrument is a local vers on of the 1955 WAIS, a fundamentally revised and renormed Wechsler-Bel levue. It is argued that the continued use of the South African Wechsl er-Bellevue, with its outdated norms and unknown statistical propertie s, is not in the public interest, and that diagnostic conclusions base d on this instrument may be misleading. It is then argued that if a ne w adult intelligence scale is to be developed, this should be based on the 1981 revision of the Wechsler (WAIS-R), rather than the local sca le now under development by the Human Sciences Research Council; and f inally, that in psychology, South Africa is not a beggar at the world' s door, and that the capability exists for the development of an innov ative and culturally appropriate ability assessment device. One such p ossibility is described.