Human figure drawings by mentally retarded males

Prediction of Psychiatric Hospitalization, Diagnoses, Arrests, and Violent Behavior Through Scored Drawings and Associations

The article presents a completely empirical approach to using drawings and associations as a supplemental tool in forensic psychological assessment. The present system represents a modern alternative to prior theory-driven "projective technique" approaches that have failed to pass scientific scrutiny. Using an archival sample of 252 forensic cases, House-Tree-Person drawing protocols were scored according to preliminary test items developed from published handbooks, academic courses, and workshops on the use of drawings and related associations for assessment. Intermediate test items were selected according to their being significantly correlated with at least one external psychometric, behavioral, or clinical variable. Psychometric and editorial considerations guided the development of a final set of 66 test items. A "flagged for pathology" approach demonstrated modest convergent and discriminant validity for the final set of test items against clinical criteria on an independent sample of 150 cases of the same type used in the preliminary item development phase. Included are sample items and discussion of psychometric issues in working with this class of data.

Validity of projective drawing indices of male homosexuality

We investigated the hypothesis that certain signs in the Draw-A-Person projective technique reflect male homosexuality. Human figure drawings from gay and 88 heterosexual men, with no clinical psychological symptoms, were submitted to trained raters who were blind to the purpose of this research. The raters independently judged whether 21 signs, previously referenced in the literature as suggestive of male homosexuality, were present in the figure drawings. Only two signs, hair and hips, differentiated between groups. Results were interpreted in the light of changing social attitudes towards homosexuals and methodological problems of prior studies.

Sex preferences of mentally retarded children depicted in the human figure drawn first

This study was designed to investigate the effect of sex, age (5 to 18 yr), and IQ (20 to 78) of subjects on sex of human figures drawn first by 146 mentally retarded children. The results showed that the percentages of self-sex figures drawn first by mentally retarded boys and girls are statistically significantly lower than those for boys and girls of normal ability and that neither severity of retardation nor age is significant in determining the frequencies with which a self-sex figure is drawn first by mentally retarded boys and girls. It was suggested that minimal intelligence is required to learn the sex-identification and to identify with one's own sex.