Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

9-2025

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Psychology

Advisor

Rebecca Weiss

Committee Members

Casey LaDuke

Cynthia Calkins

Shuki Cohen

David Martinez

Subject Categories

Clinical Psychology | Multicultural Psychology

Keywords

Bilingual, Assessment, Psychology, Intelligence Scale, Language

Abstract

As the number of bilingual individuals in the United States continues to grow, psychologists often face challenges due to limited proficiency in languages other than English. This gap contributes to a shortage of multilingual psychological assessment services and tools, undermining ethical commitments to do no harm and to honor cultural diversity. This study investigates two primary issues: the reliability of individuals' self-reported language proficiency and the impact of language of administration and acculturation on performance in a widely used cognitive assessment, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV). We recruited Spanish-English bilingual university students from a Hispanic-serving institution for a longitudinal, repeated-measures design. A geographically diverse sample (N = 59) completed a range of subjective and objective language assessments and the WAIS-IV in both English and Mexican Spanish during separate sessions. While most participants reported minimal differences in their understanding and speaking abilities in English and Spanish, objective proficiency tests revealed that oral English skills often exceeded those of oral Spanish. Additionally, there was a moderate correlation between self-assessments and objective proficiency scores. Although participants did not exhibit statistically significant differences in their full-scale intelligence quotients on the WAIS-IV when controlling for stress and order of administration, several individuals scored higher on the Spanish version despite expressing a preference for English testing. We discuss the clinical implications of using the WAIS-IV and language proficiency assessments with bilingual populations, recommending that clinicians consistently evaluate language and social backgrounds in contexts of linguistic diversity. Future research should explore factors influencing language preferences during testing and emphasize the urgent need to develop bilingual testing protocols and culturally relevant cognitive measures.

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