Canonical Analysis of the MMPI and WAIS in a Psychiatric Sample

Abstract

Valid MMPI and WAIS subscale raw scores, collected from 197 psychiatric inpatients, were subjected to bivariate, multiple, and canonical correlational analyses. 25% of the bivariate correlations and 50% of the multiple correlations were significant. A canonical R of .609 obtained between the WAIS subtests and the MMPI clinical scales, and a canonical R of .394 between the WAIS subtests and the MMPI validity scales. While bivariate relationships between pairs of specific MMPI and WAIS subscales are small, a not inconsequential amount of overlapping variance between the two is observed using multivariate techniques. The relationship between the MMPI clinical scales and the MMPI subtests is accounted for by a cognitive factor. General intellectual ability is hypothesized to account for the relationship between the MMPI validity scales and the WAIS subtests.