Should human figure drawings be admitted into court?

Forensic assessment may be based on common sense assumptions rather than science

Forensic assessments must be scientifically founded, because courts should obtain expert evidence with acceptable evidential value. In Slovenia, professional guidelines of forensic personality assessment are too general and not always in line with international professional recommendations. Thus, experts have no strict guidelines which would lead them to scientifically grounded expert opinions. The aim of the research was to establish which tests are employed in forensic assessment in Slovenia and to what extent the professional guidelines for expert opinions are followed. A total of 166 forensic personality assessments were reviewed, representing the majority of expert opinions issued in the period 2003-2018. The results of the analysis revealed that questionable projective tests are most commonly used. Typically, an expert opinion was rendered based on two tests, at least one of which was projective. What is more, expert opinions did not include hypotheses, in-text citations, reference lists, or proof of the expert witness's competence. The tests and their results were mentioned briefly and inadequately, without mention of their reliability and validity. Possible malingering of the person being evaluated was not detected. Professional guidelines were not followed and non-standardized tests without normative values and of questionable scientific merit were predominantly used, despite lack of proof that they truly measure what they claim to be measuring. These findings significantly differ from the results of similar research, raising serious concerns over the credibility of expert opinions in Slovenia.

The Reliability of Scores for the Draw-A-Person Intellectual Ability Test for Children, Adolescents, and Adults

The reliability of scores for the Draw-A-Person Intellectual Ability Test for Children, Adolescents, and Adults is examined with a sample of 110 college students from two universities in the southeast. The alpha coefficient for the total sample and the interscorer and intrascorer reliability for a subset of 31 students are analyzed. The alpha coefficient for the 23 items for the total sample was .82. The correlation coefficient for IQ is .83 for interscorer reliability and .92 for intrascorer reliability. Results are consistent with those reported by the test authors.

A Psychometric Study of the Kinetic-House-Tree-Person Scoring System for People with Psychiatric Disorders in Taiwan

Objective/Background

The Kinetic-House-Tree-Person (KHTP) drawing test is widely used by psychiatric occupational therapists in Taiwan; however, very little support has been provided through studies examining its psychometric properties. The aim of the study is to validate a scoring system for the KHTP on a group of people with psychiatric disorders.

Methods

A total of 66 individuals with psychiatric disorders were recruited for this study along with 53 college students as a comparative group. Each participant completed the KHTP test. Half of the individuals with psychiatric disorders (33 people) completed the KHTP again following a 2-week period. The KHTP scoring system contains 54 items representing drawing characteristics. Two independent raters determined the score of the drawings, with the validity and reliability of the KHTP scoring system being subsequently examined by the Rasch and traditional analysis.

Results

The results reveal both validity and unidimensionality of the KHTP scoring system, demonstrating acceptable test—retest reliability. The intraclass correlation coefficient of the scoring system's inter-rater reliability was .76, with significant statistical differences found between the KHTP scores of college students and individuals with psychiatric disorders.

Conclusion

The KHTP scoring system has acceptable construct validity, inter-rater reliability, and test—retest reliability. Because drawing tests have the advantage of expressing nonverbal characteristics, the scoring system should prove to be very useful for those who are unwilling or unable to communicate verbally. This study therefore provides valuable information for clinical application, particularly for the psychiatric rehabilitation professions.

New scoring method of the family drawing for sexually abused preschoolers

This study assesses whether the global psychological adjustment score on the family drawing, derived with a new scoring method, can predict the presence of internalized and externalized behavior problems among sexually abused children. A family drawing was completed by 78 sexually abused children, and three questionnaires were administered to the nonoffending parent. The results indicate that a poorer global psychological adjustment score on the family drawing is associated with a higher probability of clinical thresholds for internalized and externalized behavior problems in children who have been sexually abused, even when controlling for parents' psychological distress, child's age, number of stressful events experienced by the child, and type of sexual abuse.

Can projective drawings detect if a child experienced sexual or physical abuse? A systematic review of the controlled research

Clinical observations have suggested that children who experience physical or sexual abuse may provide indicators in their drawings that can distinguish them from nonabused children. Some have even suggested that a child's drawings and the interpretive testimony of a trained mental health clinician should be admissible in court as evidence of a child's abuse status. Many of these comments, however, may reflect a limited consideration of the available research. The current article provides a comprehensive literature review of the controlled research to determine whether any graphic indicators (e.g., genitalia, omission of body parts) or predefined scoring system can reliability and validly discriminate abused from nonabused children. Results indicate that, although individual studies have found support for various indicators or scoring systems, these results are rarely replicated, many times studies finding significant results suffer from serious methodological flaws and alternative explanations for findings (e.g., mental illness) are often present. No graphic indicator or scoring system possessed sufficient empirical evidence to support its use for identifying sexual or physical abuse. A discussion of the legal ramifications of these results is provided.

The Development of a Scoring System for the Kinetic House-Tree-Person Drawing Test

Objective/Background

The Kinetic House-Tree-Person Test (KHTPT) is already in widespread use amongst psychiatric occupational therapists in Taiwan, but the psychometric attributes of the test are somewhat limited. The primary aims of this study are to develop a quantitative scoring system for the KHTPT and carry out an assessment of its psychometric attributes.

Methods

Based on the test manual and the related literature, we identified 35 drawing characteristics relating to anxiety and depression, and we recruited 323 participants from two universities in northern Taiwan to participate in our study. These participants, who had a mean age of 20.1 years (SD = 3.0), were instructed to draw a KHTPT picture, and were then asked to complete related questionnaires. The data were subsequently analysed using WINSTEPS (Beavertown, Oregon: Winsteps.com ) and SPSS (SPSS Inc., Chicago).

Results

The results revealed that all of the items of the scoring system provided a good fit with the Rasch measurement model, with the Cronbach's alpha for the scale being .94. The Spearman correlation coefficients of the Rasch-transformed KHTPT scores with the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory-II, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, and the National Taiwan University Hospital Symptom Checklist were all found to be small, albeit with statistical significance (Spearman correlation coefficients, r = .140–-.226).

Conclusion

This study demonstrates our proposed KHTPT scoring system has eminently acceptable construct validity and internal consistency. We suggest that future studies should include patients with psychiatric disorders at varying degrees of severity or functional level to examine the applicability and predictive validity of our proposed scoring system.

Evidence-based assessment

Evidence-based assessment (EBA) emphasizes the use of research and theory to inform the selection of assessment targets, the methods and measures used in the assessment, and the assessment process itself. Our review focuses on efforts to develop and promote EBA within clinical psychology. We begin by highlighting some weaknesses in current assessment practices and then present recent efforts to develop EBA guidelines for commonly encountered clinical conditions. Next, we address the need to attend to several critical factors in developing such guidelines, including defining psychometric adequacy, ensuring appropriate attention is paid to the influence of comorbidity and diversity, and disseminating accurate and up-to-date information on EBAs. Examples are provided of how data on incremental validity and clinical utility can inform EBA. Given the central role that assessment should play in evidence-based practice, there is a pressing need for clinically relevant research that can inform EBAs.

Build-a-Person Technique: an examination of the validity of human-figure features as evidence of childhood sexual abuse

OBJECTIVE

This exploratory study examined the discriminant validity of 10 human-figure features commonly used by many proponents of the draw-a-person (DAP) projective technique as evidence of childhood sexual abuse. Two exploratory features were also examined.

METHOD

Rather than drawing human figures, 64 children (M = 8 years, 9 months), including 19 sexually abused children, 26 nonsexually abused but emotionally/behaviourally troubled children, and 19 nonabused, nonclinical children, were instructed to build male and female figures using groups of prefabricated pieces of human-figure body parts. Unbeknownst to the children, each group of parts contained a potential sexual abuse feature (or features).

RESULTS

None of the human-figure features under examination, either individually, or in combination, distinguished the sexually abused group from the other two groups of children.

CONCLUSIONS

In accordance with years worth of DAP projective technique research, no support for the validity of the human-figure features under examination as evidence of childhood sexual abuse, was found.

Clinical assessment

Are clinical psychologists' assessment practices cost-effective? Are they scientifically sound? Are they fair and unbiased? Financial pressures from managed care interests, recent developments in the law, and multicultural issues are forcing the profession to confront these hard questions regarding accountability. Our review discusses the important changes that have begun to alter the field of personality assessment and describes recent research on clinical judgment and its implications for the future. We conclude that clinical psychology can adapt to future conditions by developing assessment strategies that are economical, scientifically sound, and culturally sensitive.