David Wechsler: biography of the creator of the intelligence scales.

The famous WAIS and WISC intelligence tests owe their existence to this researcher.

David Wechsler is an old acquaintance of all those who have studied intelligence at a scientific level, from disciplines such as psychology or branches or specializations such as neuropsychology or neuropsychiatry. It is not in vain that he is the author of one of the most famous and widely used batteries for the evaluation of cognitive abilities, the Wechsler ScalesThe Wechsler Intelligence Scales, both in their adult (WAIS) and child (WISC) versions.

We are probably facing one of the most recognized and important professionals who researched and conducted several studies on intelligence and cognitive ability, and who transformed this research into practical material to assess the condition of patients. Below we will see a brief biography of David Wechsler.

The life of the creator of the Wechsler Scales: biography of David Wechsler

David Wechsler was born on January 12, 1896 in the city of Lespedi, Romania, as the youngest of seven siblings. He came from a family of Jewish origin, being the son of Professor Moses S. Wechsler and the shopkeeper Leah W. Pascal.

In 1902, when David was six years old, the Wechsler family emigrated to the United States, specifically to New York City.specifically to New York City. Naturalized in that country, he would carry out his primary and secondary studies.

University education and World War I

Once he finished high school, he began his university studies at the City College of New York, from which he graduated in 1916. He would later take a master's degree in Experimental Psychology at Columbia University in 1917.

After that and before the outbreak of the First World War, he enlisted in the army, enlisted in the army, in which he participated as a psychologist.. Initially he worked in Long Island, in the Yaphank camp, being assigned to pass general intelligence tests (specifically the Army Alpha and Army Beta, which were intended to be used to assess the assignment of recruits as officers or privates) for the selection of recruits.

He would perform the same tasks in the psychological division at Fort Logan, Texas, where he would meet and work with authors such as Thorndike, Yerkes, Spearman and Pearson. Throughout his military experience he would begin to realize that the tests used had serious limitations and biases (for example, they were not adapted for illiterates or foreigners, the verbal being excessively important).

He also served in France. After the war, the army awarded him a scholarship in 1918 to study at the University of London, where he would meet again with Pearson and Spearman.where he met Pearson and Spearman.

After that, in 1919 he was accepted at the University of Paris, where he carried out research in experimental psychology on the variations of the electrical conductivity in the skin in the face of emotional changes together with Piéron and Lapique, until 1922.

That same year he returned to the United States, working initially at the Boston Psychiatric Hospital months later, he moved to New York and joined the Bureau of Child Guidance as a psychologist, where he observed and practiced as a clinical psychologist until 1925. That year he completed his research on the electrical conduction of the skin, receiving his doctorate from Columbia University (having been tutored by Woodworth).

Postdoctoral life and World War II

After earning his doctorate, he spent the next few years, until 1932, as a clinical psychologist in private practice, as well as a secretary at the New York Psychological Corporation (where he introduced a lie detector in 1926). His research showed him that the magnitude of interpersonal differences in cognitive abilities was overestimated. in terms of cognitive abilities, as well as the fact that from a certain age onwards these begin to decline.

In 1932 he was offered the position of chief psychologist at Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital, a position he would hold until 1967. He would also remain in contact with the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at New York University. His studies were varied, but intelligence would continue to be the subject of most interest to him..

In 1934 he married Florence Felske, although weeks after the wedding she died in a traffic accident. He would not remarry until 1939, when he married Ruth Halpern. he would marry Ruth Halpern (with whom he would end up having two children).

The same year of this second marriage would also be the year of a milestone in psychology, the publication of his first intelligence scales. We are talking about the Wechsler-Bellevue Scale of Intelligence. Unfortunately, however, it was also in that same year that the Second World War began.

During this second war, he would be appointed advisor to the U.S. Secretary of War. His role would also be relevant after the war, and implementing a mental health program for the survivors of the Holocaust. for Holocaust survivors in Cyprus during 1947 and working with war veterans. He also visited the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, working briefly as a professor in 1967.

Another remarkable aspect is that over the years he developed different tests, among them the Wechsler Memory Scale, or the well-known WAIS (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale), WISC (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children) or WPPSI (Wechsler Primary and Preschool Scale of Intelligence, for preschool children) as well as some of their revisions. His contributions were highly respected and valued while he was alive, receiving different awards for them.

Death and legacy

Wechsler died at his home in Manhattan on May 2, 1981, in New York City.in New York City. He died at the age of 85, leaving a wife, children and grandchildren. However, his legacy is extensive and lives on today.

His studies on intelligence and the scales he created have been of great use in evaluating and assessing the cognitive status of patients with some type of to evaluate and assess the cognitive status of patients who show some kind of impairment.

In fact, although the entire battery is not usually used because it would take considerable time, it is common that many of the tests generated for it are used today in the evaluation of people with memory complaints, to assess cognitive ability and adjust the aids if necessary (for example in the case of the need for educational aids at school) or who have some kind of cognitive impairment (to assess impairment caused by age or even observe alterations caused by some type of dementia).

Tests such as the WAIS and the WISC continue to be performed periodicallyThe WAIS and WISC tests continue to be periodically improved and their scales updated, while retaining the name of their original designer, Wechsler.