An examination of the relationship between the patterns of subtle-obvious item endorsement and intelligence.

Abstract

Wiener (1948) developed the Subtle-Obvious (S, O) subscales for five clinical scales in the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) (i.e., Depression, Hysteria, Psychopathic Deviate, Paranoia, and Mania) in order to detect test taking attitudes. The influence of intelligence on the Sand 0 subscales was one of several results Wiener presented. His results showed that males with an IQ one standard deviation above the mean have approximately equal S and 0 scores. The present study investigated the s-o scores of 55 males with an IQ above 110 who were convicted of driving under the influence and subsequently received a courtordered substance abuse evaluation between 1990 and 1992 at a midwestern mental health center. As part of the substance abuse evaluation, the participants were administered the MMPI and the Shipley Institute of Living Scale IQ test. T-scores from the S scales and 0 scales, IQ, and pertinent demographic information were gathered from already established files. A dependent t-test was performed between the subtle T-score means and the obvious T-score means for each subscale. Supporting Wiener's result, the means for the Mania subscale were not significantly different, however, in contradiction to Wiener's results, the means for the remaining s-o subscales were significantly different. In fact, the 0 means were higher than the S means which was the pattern Wiener found in low intelligence individuals. Possible explanations and practical implications for the results are discussed.