ASSESSMENT IN

COUNSELING
By- Manali Naphade (MA Counseling Psychology Sem 3)
 MAIN CONTENT
• Projective techniques of assessing personality-

• 1) House-Tree-Person Test by John Buck

• 2) Draw-a-Man Test or Draw-a-Person test by Florence Goodenough

 THE HOUSE TREE PERSON TEST
• A projective technique developed by John Buck
• An outgrowth of the Goodenough scale utilized to assess intellectual functioning
• Buck felt that artistic creativity represented a stream of personality characteristics that
flowed into graphic art
• He believed that through drawings, subjects objectified unconscious difficulties by sketching
the inner image of primary process
• He believed the test had to be rooted in the individual’s personality
 PURPOSE OF THE HTP TEST
• To measure the aspects of a person’s personality through interpretation of drawings and
responses to questions

• Used as an assessment of brain damage or overall neurological functioning

 HISTORY OF THE HTP TEST
• Developed by John Buck in 1948 and updated in 1969

• Tests requiring human figure drawing were already being utilized as projective personality
tests

• Beck believed that drawing of houses and trees could also provide relevant information
about the functioning of an individual’s personality
 DESCRIPTION OF THE HTP TEST

• Can be given to anyone over the age of 3

• Because it requires test takers to draw pictures, it is often used with children and adolescents
• Also often used with individuals suspected of having brain damage or other neurological
impairment
• Time taken to complete the test- 150 minutes (less time with normal functioning and more
with neurologically impaired individuals)
 DESCRIPTION OF THE HTP TEST
• FIRST PHASE OF THE TEST- Test takers are asked to use crayon to draw pictures
respectively; a house, a tree and a person. Each drawing is done on a separate piece of paper
and the test taker is asked to draw as accurately as possible. Upon completion of the
drawings, test takers are asked questions about the drawings. There are a total of 60
questions that examiners can ask. Examiners can also create their own questions or ask
unscripted follow-up questions
• Example- “Is it a happy house?”, “What is the house made of?”
• “How old is that tree?” “Is the tree alive?”
• “Is that person happy?” “How does that person feel?”
 DESCRIPTION OF THE HTP TEST
• SECOND PHASE OF THE TEST-
• During the second phase of the test, test takers are asked to draw the same pictures with a
pencil.
• The questions that follow this phase are similar to the ones in the first phase.
• Some examiners give only one of the two phases; choosing either a crayon, a pencil, or some
other writing instrument

• One variation of the test involves asking the individual to draw two separate persons, one of
each sex. Another variation is to have test takers put all the drawing on one page
 ADMINISTRATION OF THE HTP
TEST
• Materials used- Pencil and white paper
• Test taker is asked to draw a good house, take as much time as needed and erase anything
you need to
• Then the pencil is taken away & you can use crayons in anyway to shade in or draw
 SCORING AND RESULTS IN THE
HTP
• HTP is scored both in an objective quantitative manner and a subjective qualitative manner
• The quantitative scoring scheme involves analysing the details of drawings to arrive at a
general assessment of intelligence, using a scoring method devised by the test creators.
Research has shown this assessment of intelligence correlates highly with other intelligence
tests such as the Wechsler adult intelligence scale (WAIS)
• The primary use of the HTP, however, is related to the qualitative scoring scheme in which
the test administrator subjectively analyses the drawings and the responses to questions in a
way that assesses the test taker's personality. For example, a very small house might indicate
rejection of one's home life. A tree that has a slender trunk but has large expansive branches
might indicate a need for satisfaction. A drawing of a person that has a lot of detail in the
face might indicate a need to present oneself in an acceptable social light.
 SCORING AND RESULTS IN THE
HTP
• Other methods of interpretation focus on the function of various parts in each of the
drawings. In the house drawing, the roof might represent one's intellectual side, the walls
might represent the test taker’s degree of ego strength, and the doors and windows might
represent the individual's relation to the outside world. In the tree drawing, the branches
might indicate the test taker's relation to the outside world and the trunk might indicate inner
strength

• As with other subjectively scored personality tests, there is little support for its reliability
and validity. However, there is some evidence that the HTP can differentiate people with
specific types of brain damage. More specifically, it has been shown to be effective when
looking at the brain damage present in schizophrenic patients
 SCORING IN THE HTP TEST

• The Post-Drawing Interrogation form consists of 60 questions varying from direct and
concrete to indirect and abstract.
• Once the Post-Drawing Interrogation form has been administered and the interview has been
completed, the examiner records items of detail, proportion, and perspective in the Scoring
Folder.
• After completing the scoring tables, the examiner derives an IQ figure for the percentage of
raw G, a net weighted score, a weighted "good" score, and a weighted "flaw" sore, which
then comprise the items for the profile configuration
 PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES
• Reliability and Validity- The manual contains no information on validity and reliability

• Norms- The standardization sample included 140 adults. No attempt was made to randomly
select a stratified sample of subjects from the general population. Twenty adults were
selected for each of seven intellectual levels (imbecile, moron, borderline, dull average,
average, above average and superior)
 ADVANTAGES OF THE HTP TEST

• Requires little time

• Is simple to administer
• Culture free technique of assessment
• Does not require elaborate command of language on part of the test taker
• Greater applicability to children
• Good for test takers with limited education, limited intellectual ability, with culturally
deprived backgrounds, for those who are shy or silent
 DISADVANTAGES OF THE HTP
TEST

• Verbal patients are less responsive to graphic techniques than to other projective, like the
TAT or Rorschach
• Psychomotor difficulties such as physical handicaps or tremulousness (geriatric patients)
impede the analysis. Their personality expression is held back by their motoric handicap
• Patients with a paucity of inner life, such as the schizoid patient, provide a barren
personality profile. These patients need something external to stimulate their mental
processes
 DRAW A MAN TEST
• The Draw-A-Man Test, developed by Florence Goodenough in 1926 was the first formal
figure drawing test
• It was used to estimate a child's cognitive and intellectual abilities reflected in the drawing's
quality and the amount of detail in it
• Draw a Person test is a human figure drawing tests which is meant to be administered to
children, and adolescents; however at some point it is administered to adults
• The aim of the test is to assess how the child perceives the people around him or her
including the family and other psychological activities, on interpersonal and cognitive level
 DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAW A
MAN TEST
• DAP is a projective test, that allow an examinee to respond to questions through drawings.
Projective tests can be applied in various settings from schools, corporate, and private
practices to assess different psychological aspects include: personality, family background,
intelligence, physical and emotional abuse, depression etc
• This test is more appropriate when administered to children in grade one and grade two.
Usually clinicians find these tests to be easily administered, and the common instruction of
the test is structured as “draw a person doing something”
• More over the test is timed to a maximum of 5 minutes per picture and it is advised that if
the child doesn’t complete each picture on time the clinician should give instruction to the
examinee to continue draw the other picture
 HISTORY OF DRAW A MAN TEST
• First developed by Florence Goodenough in 1926
• The test was later revised by Harris in 1963 as the Goodenough Harris Drawing Test
(GHDT), which included a detailed scoring system and allowed for drawings of men,
women, and the self
• The scoring system primarily reflected the way in which the child is maturing cognitively
• The GHDT is appropriate for children between the ages of three and 17, although it has been
found to be most useful for children between three and 10
 HISTORY OF DRAW A MAN TEST
• In 1948, the Draw-A-Person test (DAPT) was developed by Machover
• This test used figure drawings in a more projective way, focusing on how the drawings
reflected the anxieties, impulses, self-esteem, and personality of the test taker
• In this test, children are first asked to draw a picture of a person. Then, they are asked to
draw a picture of a person of the sex opposite of the first drawing
• Sometimes, children are also asked to draw a picture of the self and/or family members
• Then, they are asked a series of questions about themselves and the drawings which are
meant to elicit information about the child's anxieties, impulses, and overall personality
 HISTORY OF DRAW A MAN TEST
• In 1992, Naglieri and his colleagues created a more specific scoring system for figure
drawing tests called the Draw-A-Person: Screening Procedure of Emotional Disturbance
(DAP:SPED), based on a large standardization sample
• This scoring method includes 55 items rated by the test administrator and based on the
child's drawings and responses to questions. The DAP:SPED is appropriate for children aged
6 to 17.
• It is often used as a screening method for children who may be having difficulties with
regard to social adjustment and require further evaluation
 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF
DRAW A MAN TEST
• In the psychoanalytical field, a person’s drawing of male and female figures is believed to be
a window into his/her personality. Comments made by the person while drawing, in what
order and size body parts are drawn and what features are drawn or not are some of the signs
taken into account
• In DAPT, the image drawn is intimately tied to the self. In the process of creating the figure,
conscious and unconscious determinants guide clients; images of cultural and social
stereotypes contribute to body image conception.
• The figure the client draws is himself or herself in many respects and the page upon which
the client draws is his or her world. The end product is a drawing of self-experience in the
client’s world
 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF
DRAW A MAN TEST
• The field of projective drawing interpretation rests upon several theoretical postulates:

• 1) There is a tendency in man to view the world in an anthropomorphic manner

• 2) The core of the anthropomorphic view of the environment is the mechanism of projection
• 3) Distortions enter into the process of projection to the extent to which the projection has a
defensive function
 ADMINISTRATION OF THE DRAW A
MAN TEST
• The clinician should have a supply of 8 ½ x 11 inch unlined paper and some well sharpened 2 pencils
with erasers. The drawing surface beneath the paper should be flat and smooth and there should be
enough illumination. The patient should be seated comfortably with enough room for their arms and
legs and should be able to rest their arms comfortably on the drawing surface
• One sheet of paper should be placed in front of the patient in a vertical position, along with one
pencil
• The patient should be told, “I would like you to draw a picture of a person.” In response to questions
(“What kind of figure should I draw?”, “Should I draw the head only?”, “Should I draw the whole
person?”, “I a stick figure ok?”), the clinician should respond, “Do it any way you like; It’s up to
you.”
• Sometime the patient responds with comments indicating concern about his/her ability to perform
adequately. To such comments, the examiner should respond, “This is not a test of artistic ability. I
am not concerned with how good an artist you are. Just do the best and do not worry.”
 ADMINISTRATION OF THE DRAW A
MAN TEST
• When the first complete drawing is finished, the clinician should put another sheet of paper in front
of the patient and state, “Now, I’d like you to draw the person of the opposite sex.” If the patient
being tested is a child, the clinician should say, “You drew a boy/girl (man/woman); now, draw a
girl/boy (woman/man).”
• When this task has been completed satisfactorily, the patient should be asked to sign each drawing.
The clinician should then date each drawing, either on the front or on the back. In addition, the
clinician should indicate which drawing was done first
• The clinician should then present the first complete drawing to the patient and shoul request that the
patient make up a story about the person drawn (“Now, I’d like you to make up a story about the
person you’ve drawn. Look at it and make up a story and I’ll write it down.”). The story should be
recorded verbatim because interpretation depends on the manner in which the words are phrased and
expressed. Sometimes, it is necessary to urge or encourage the patient. Should the patient be unable
to make up a story, it will then be necessary to ask specific questions about the drawing
 ADMINISTRATION OF DRAW A
MAN TEST
• A third approach in obtaining verbal associations is to ask the patient to examine the drawings and to
then associate them. The patient should be asked to describe the person he/she has drawn to tell what
comes to mind when the drawing is examined or the examiner might ask: “Tell me about this person.
What is he/she like?”
• During the drawing task itself, it is important for the clinician to observe the following sequence: (a)
remarks made by the patient; (b) style of approach to the task; and (c) adequacy of attempts to
manage the task appropriately despite the pressure of the testing situation
• It is important to note how the patient orients to the relatively unstructured drawing situation. Does
the patient ask for direction, either verbally or non-verbally, or does he/she seem comfortable and
self-assured? Is the patient’s approach to the task quick and impulsive, careful or overly-cautious and
uncertain? Does the patient express doubt about his/her ability? Each aspect of approach to the task
tells the clinician a great deal about adaptation to the environment, self-concept, methods of dealing
with stressful situations, conflicts and personality style
 SCORING AND INTERPRETATION
OF DRAW A MAN TEST

• The DAP scoring consists of two item; first the items responsible for figure dimensions, this includes
figure size and placement on the page
• This items are scored using the templates for each of the three age categories. Moreover there are also
raters for the content of the drawing to detect things like shading, frowning mouth, erasure and
others. A point is only awarded when the drawing meet the criteria of the drawing
• According to Negleria et al, (1991), the template helps clinicians through avoiding the need to
measure the size nor the location of the drawing on the paper. There are ten complete template and
they are divided according to their purposes, the first four are used to score the subject of a man,
woman and self-drawing, and the second three are used to score according to a certain age
 SCORING AND INTERPRETATION
OF DRAW A MAN TEST
• The scoring is based on the following-
• 1) Gross details
• 2) Attachments
• 3) Head details
• 4) Clothing
• 5) Hand details
• 6) Joints
• 7) Proportion
• 8) Motor Coordination
• 9) Find head detail
• 10) Profile
 SCORING AND INTERPRETATION
OF DRAW A MAN TEST
• Interpretation concerning structure and content: Size, pencil pressure, lack of detail, erasure,
shading, distortions and omissions, transparency, vertical imbalance and sex of the drawn
figure

• Interpretation concerning body parts: head, mouth, chin, neck, waistline, arms, legs, genitals,
profile view and stance
 PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF
DRAW A MAN TEST
• Validity- DAP is used worldwide by clinicians, although Arteche, Bandeira, and Hutz (2010) have
noticed some flaws about the system, which some of them includes the gender of the first drawn,
which theoretically it is expected that the first person to be drawn should be of the same sex of the
examinee, this has been found to be a misconception since the gender of the drawn changes as the
child grows
• However some justification about gender being changed by the drawer includes cultural background
and gender identity crisis, furthermore Farylo and Paludi (2001), concluded by saying that this
assumption are “idiosyncratic” (p.578) which they referred to drawing of conclusion from small
number of sample
 PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF
DRAW A MAN TEST
• Validity- The DAP has been criticized as measure of intelligence, these criticism led to a comparison of the
DAP and other measure of intelligence such as the Wechsler intelligence scales

• Furthermore Bond et al, (2015) argued on the notion that “…projective tests [can] reveal something
about the unconscious through the use of ambiguous stimuli”. According to Bond et al, (2015)
there’s very little arguable evidence on such claims and it is doubtable that this test can still do.
Additionally it has been found that projective test have a very low validity co-efficiency, and most
manuals only mention findings which are supporting the test not the ones against the tests
• In considering the definition of construct validity it shows that the DAP test is based on construct
validity, because the tests explains its assumptions following certain theoretical frame work and
theoretical definitions on what the test are supposed to measure. This shows that the test cannot be
relied on as a tool to measure the aspects it claims to measure in absentia of a theoretical assumption
or definition
 PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF
DRAW A MAN TEST
• Reliability- The DAP internal reliability was determined using Cronbach’s alpha, using the
standardization sample, and coefficient was calculated for each group. The man, the woman, and self-
item were summed together for each subject, and these items scores were for each subject and these
values were used in the computation. Results proved that the DAP: SPED has proper level if internal
reliability for what the test claims to measure
• The draw a person test was found to have more inter and intra rater reliability when administered on
Indian children with psychiatric disorders. The study was conducted based on 90 children who were
diagnosed for anxiety, depression, and somatoform disorders
• Furthermore the reliability was also reviewed by Laak, Goede, Aleva, and Rijsvijk (2005),
who evaluated the hypothesis that DAP can be used as an indicator for emotions and
intelligence, the study was based on 115 participants 7 – 19 year old pupils who went to
school at specials education institutions. However their results showed that the
impulsiveness and self-image from their human figure drawings was low, (less than .60)
whereas on the judgement the study show reliable results of (.79 to 89).
 PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF
DRAW A MAN TEST
• Reliability- In conclusion some researchers were quoted saying that the “… DAP:SPED’s reliability
using various measures of consistency. Computations of Cronbach’s alpha had a range of .67 to .78,
indicating a good level of internal consistency, particularly for a projective measure that is based on a
rater’s judgement of items present in a drawing…”

• Furthermore Williams et al (2006), also made remarks like “The results of this study were supportive
and consistent with the internal consistency and inters corer reliability coefficients…”
 ADVANTAGES OF DRAW A MAN
TEST
• The DAP is a simple, easy task for most patients. Young children, especially, like it and will usually cooperate
quite readily. They are often more fluent graphically than they are verbally
• Children with certain internalized disorders often do not demonstrate their problems in overt behavior. Even
when they are interviewed, children do not typically communicate their problems directly because they often
lack the ability to express their emotional discomfort. Most children, especially the younger ones, lack the ability
to use language that labels or describes these emotions. The DAP and other similar drawing procedures offer a
window into their experienced subjective discomfort
• The DAP is quick and easy to administer. It is typically completed within 5 to 10 minutes and it requires few
materials
• It offers clues concerning motor and conceptual development
• The DAP has few age and intelligence limitations. It can be used with very young (sometimes as early as 3 years
old) and it generates valuable data even when the patient has limited intelligence
 DISADVANTAGES OF THE DRAW A
MAN TEST
• It lacks normative data for deaf individuals
• Communicating instructions to “draw a whole person” is often difficult without influencing the
content of the student’s drawing
• It lacks reliability and validity for deaf population
• People jump to conclusions based on the drawings
THANK YOU!