Abstract
Three‐hundred and two psychiatric inpatients (166 women and 136 men) completed Masling, Rabie, and Blondheim's Rorschach Oral Dependency (ROD) Scale and the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale Revised (WAIS‐R). As predicted. ROD scale scores were unrelated to WAIS‐R scores in subjects of either sex. These findings support the discriminant validity of the ROD scale as a measure of interpersonal dependency, and suggest that deficits in intellectual ability do not underlie the dependency‐related behaviors (e.g., suggestibility, conformity, interpersonal yielding) that are associated with high scores on the ROD scale. Implications of these findings for research on the dependency‐academic performance relationship are discussed, and suggestions for future studies assessing the convergent and discriminant validity of the ROD scale are offered. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.