House-Tree-Person drawings and personality traits

Personality traits and the expression area of synthetic house-tree-person drawings in early adolescent Japanese

This study surveyed the expression areas of the Synthetic House-Tree-Person drawing test (S-HTP test, Mikami, 1995) for Japanese early adolescents. The S-HTP test is a projective method in which subjects are asked to draw a house, tree, and person. The expression area is defined as the area of each drawn item, such as the house, tree or person. The participants consisted of 186 Japanese junior high school students and their S-HTP drawings were analyzed using path analysis. The relationships between the expression areas of each item in the test and the students’ personality traits were examined. The personality traits were measured using the Five-Factor Personality Inventory for Children (FFPC, Soga, 1999). The results show that personality traits of high conscientiousness were associated with larger houses (p < .10) and trees (p < .10). In addition, higher scores on openness to experience (p < .01) and on agreeableness (p < .05) correlate with bigger person figures as their size, whereas higher scores on neuroticism correlate with smaller figures as their size (p < .01). The findings also indicate that the total fitness of the model was sufficient (CFI = .984, RMSEA = .021). These findings may aid the development of useful criteria for future psychological assessments.

The HTP as a measure of change in dialyzed schizophrenic patients

Used the House-Tree-Person as a measure of pathology in 10 schizophrenic patients of both sexes between the ages of 19 and 30 before and after experimental hemodialysis treatment. Results obtained through the quantitative HTP scoring method, and reflected in HTP IQs, indicate that significant improvement as a function of treatment is seen in pre- to post-dialysis drawings. Data analysis, using the Two Factor Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), indicates that drawings done after dialysis improve at the .005 and .001 levels. The HTP evaluations support the continued use of hemodialysis as an effective treatment for schizophrenia.

Personality of alcoholics as measured by Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire and House-Tree-Person color-choice characteristics

This report describes four studies of measures of the alcoholic personality by the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire and the House-Tree-Person. In a sample of 49 male alcoholics support was found for the 16 PF alcoholic personality reported in earlier studies on 4 to 7 scales. Differences in incidence of 20 chromatic characteristics of drawings and in sex of the HTP person drawings between normals and alcoholics were also discovered. Previous research on collegiates reported some low but significant point biserial correlations and discriminant functions between 16 PF traits and trait combinations, and 20 chromatic drawing characteristics. In three instances, alcoholic and college men's drawing characteristics correlated significantly ( p < .05) with the same 16 PF scale. In three other cases, identical findings occurred in correlations of alcoholic men and college women's drawings and traits. Comparison of the data from alcoholics and college students led to the conclusion that in general relationships between drawing characteristics and personality traits may well depend on the type of sample used. Suggestions for further research were made.

The HTP weeping willow and personality traits

Comparison of 16 PF scores of 12 college students who drew weeping willow trees, when matched with those of 12 others for sex, age, and college class, did not support the hypothesis suggested by the literature that drawers of weeping willows would score lower on Factor F (Sober—Happy-go-lucky).