“HUMAN FIGURE DRAWING TEST”
DEFINITION
A Projective measure is a psychological
instrument that allows a clinical psychologist
or a psychoanalyst to judge a person's
capabilities and habits by projecting their
thought process and emotional responses via
their drawings and the images they are shown.
DEVELOPMENTAL HISTORY
The interest in drawings has a well documented
history in Europe.
Goodenough reports that , as early as 1885, an
article appeared in England by Ebenzer Cooke in
which he described developmental stages in
children's drawings.
Numerous other studies and papers by different
psychologists and educators have followed
since then over the past 75 years.
Over the years, the emphasis in the literature shifted
from comparative investigations of graphic productions
by children and primitive people to clinical analysis of
paintings and drawings of disturbed children, to
longitudinal studies of youngsters from their first
scribble to mature drawings, and to the assessment of
mental maturity by means of HFD.
BASIS
The Human Figure Drawing test
is a non-verbal test, mainly
based on visuo-spatial and
constructional abilities.
It underlies the theory of
Machover(1949), Urban(1963),
and Handler(1985).
It is based on the Freud's theory
of 'repression' and also effected
by Sullivan's theory of
interpersonal relationships.
It is stated that the HFD will reveal 'general
conflicts and concerns' of the client when
combined with other clinical information and
assessment to determine general cognitive
functioning.
METHOD
The HFD test requires that the test taker draws
'a whole person' at the request of examiner in
his presence.
INTERPRETATON METHODS
Two main approaches for the interpretation of HFD
exist today
1. clinicians who regard HFD as a projective
technique and analyze drawings for the signs of
unconscious needs, conflicts, and personality
traits.
2. representative of the second school of thought
approach HFD'S as a developmental test of mental
maturity.
The drawings will be scored in two different types
of objective signs:
Developmental Items
Emotional Indicators
One set of signs on HFD is believed to be primarily
related to children's age and level's of maturation.
These signs are called the 'Developmental Items'.
Emotional indicators reflect the individual's
anxieties, concerns, and attitudes. An emotional
indicator has to meet three criteria:
Clinical validity (difference between HFD's of
children with and without emotional problems.
It must be unusual and occur infrequently on the
HFD's of who are not psychiatric patients.
It must not be related to age and maturation, i.e, its
occurrence and frequency on HFD's must not
increase solely on the basis of increase in age.
Instructions for HFD (Koppitz)
“On this piece of paper, I would like you to draw a
WHOLE person. It can be any kind of a person
you want to draw, just make sure that it is a
whole person and not a stick figure or a cartoon
figure.”
1. Quality Signs:
Broken or sketchy lines
Poor integration of parts of figure
Shading of the face or its parts
Shading of the body and/or limbs
Gross asymmetry of limbs
Figure standing by 15 degrees or more
Tiny figure, 2" or less in height
Big figure, 9" or more in height
transparencies
The Special Features:
Tiny head, 1/10th of total height of
figure
Large head, as large or large than
body
Vacant eyes, circles without pupils
Side glances of both eyes, both
eyes turned to one side
Crossed eyes, both eyes turned
inward
Teeth
Short arms, not long enough to
reach waistline
Cont…
Long arms, that could reach
below knee line
Arms clinging to sides of body
Big hands, as big as face
Hands cutoff, arms without hands
and fingers
Hands hidden behind back or in
pockets
Legs pressed back or in pockets
Legs pressed together
Cont…
Genitals
Monster or ghost like figure
Three or more figures spontaneously
drawn
Figure cutoff by the edge of paper
Baseline, grass, figure on edge of paper
Sun or moon
Clouds, rain, snow or flying birds
VALID EMOTIONAL INDICATORS
POOR INTEGRATION OF PARTS OR FIGURES
Poor integration appears to be associated with any
or several of the following:
Instability
A poorly integrated personality
Poor coordination or impulsivity
Poor Integration seems to indicate immaturity on the
part of the child which may be the result of a
developmental lag, neurological impairment,
regression due to serious emotional disturbance or
all of these.
Reznikoff and Tomblen found that this was associated
with organicity in adults. Hamer attributes poor
synthesis of HFD's to emotional disturbances.
Shading
Shading is a manifestation of anxiety
The degree of shading is related to the intensity of
anxiety within the person.
Overtly aggressive/ stealing
Poor self concept
Shading of the body
Body anxiety
Psychosomatic complaints
Guilt feeling
Shading of the hands:
Anxiety related to the activities done by hands
like guilt related to masturbatory activities, or
stealing specifically shading of arms reflects guilt
for aggressive impluses.
Shading of the neck:
Anxiety related to handling of stress
Try to control anxious impulse
Acting out behavior
Shading Of legs:
Anxiety about size and physical growth or concern
about sexual impulses.
Gross asymmetry of limbs:
Aggressive
Brain injured
Poor coordination & impulsivity
Slanting figure:
Sense of instability
Lack of balance
Tiny Figure
Depression
Extreme sense of withdrawal
Poor self image
Big figure:
Aggressive
Immature
Poor inner control
Transparencies
Psychosomatic complaints
Acting out behavior
Immaturity
Tiny head:
Hostile feeling towards others
Poor achievement
Maladjusted individual
Crossed Eyes
Paranoid ideation
Inward eyes represents hostility & anger
Teeth:
Aggressive
Sadistic tendency if teeth were sharp
Oral sex
Short Arms:
Inadequacy towards task
Difficulty in approaching others
Long Arms
Aggressively approaching others
Striving for the need of affection, & love
Arms clinging:
Defensive individual
Good impulse control
Paranoid schizophrenic
Rigid & reserved
Big Hand:
Aggressive
Acting out
Stealing things
Hand cut off:
Poor achievement
Helplessness
dependent
Legs pressed:
Fear of attack
Tension related to sexual activity
Rejection of someone who approached them
Genitals:
Acute body anxiety
Psychopathology
Monster (Ghost)
Poor self control
Environmental stress
Inadequacy
Three or more figures spontaneously drawn:
Need of dependency
Poor school achievement
Problem with their self identity
Clouds, sun or moon:
Under pressure of authority figure
Snow or Moon
Interpsychic conflict
Omission of eyes:
Denial/ refusal of problem
Limited social interest
Omission of nose:
Shy/ withdrawal behavior
Feeling of helplessness
Castration anxiety/ masturbatory guilt
Psychosomatic complaints
Depressed
Anxiety/ insecurity
Refused to communicate with others
Omission of arms:
Depressed & helplessness
Sexual guilt/ overt hostility
• Omission of legs:
Insecurity
Intense Anxiety
Omission of feet:
Feeling of Insecurity
Helplessness
Hopeless attitude towards others
Omission of neck:
Psychosomatic complaints
Immaturity
Poor inner control
Non-Valid Emotional Indicators
Big Head:
Intellectual inadequacy
Immaturity
Migraine headaches
Vacant eyes or non-seeing eyes
Guilt feelings over voyeuristic tendencies
Vague perception of the world
Emotional immaturity
Lack of discrimination
Depression
Sideway glance of both eyes
Suspiciousness
fear
Hidden hands
Contact difficulties
Guilt
Need to control aggression
Unwillingness to deal with a situation
Figure cut off by the edge of the
paper
Insecurity
Poor coordination
Weak inner control
Poor judgment
Baseline or grass
Need for support
Insecurity
The sun or moon
Parental love and support
Controlling adult authority
Psychosomatic complaints
Broken or sketchy lines
Fearfulness
Insecurity
Feelings of inadequacy
Anxiety
Stubbornness
Negativism
Koppitz gave importance to following
three things for interpretation of
Emotional Indicators
What does he draw? A person has significant value.
How does he draw? It represents self-image.
Why does he draw? Expression of emotions.
Interpretation
The protocol of HFD displays that she manifests the
signs of suspiciousness, verbally aggressive and
poorly integrated personality. She also exhibits
marks of psychosomatic complaints and guilt
feelings over her aggressive impulses. Streaks of
need for change are also displayed in the layout
may be due to some serious emotional
disturbances. She also reveals signs of fearfulness,
insecurity, feelings of inadequacy, and
stubbornness along with negativism
