Master's Theses

Department

Psychology

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Abstract

This study was designed to demonstrate that considerable freedom to discard human figure drawings from a group of drawings would increase the likelihood of a clinical psychologist correctly predicting levels of adjustment by the use of drawings. Subjects were twenty patients from St. Louis State Hospital, ten of whom were diagnosed as psychotics and ten diagnosed as neurotics, and ten individuals from hospital staff comprising the normal group. Human figure drawings were collected from each subjects and these in turn were submitted to a panel of four qualified clinical psychologists. Each judge followed two steps: two judges were forced to categorize all drawings first into the above named diagnostic categories and then to go back through the drawings and to discard drawings they felt to be diagnostically insignificant. The procedure was reversed for the other two judges. There was no significant difference obtained on either free- or forced-choice steps when compared to chance level. The freedom to discard drawings apparently had no effect on the validity as the difference did not approach statistical significance. It was found that normal group was misdiagnosed more frequently than neurotic or psychotic group.

Keywords

Chi-square test, Psychologists, Diagnosis, St. Louis State Hospital (Mo.), Figure drawings, Patients

Advisor

Dr. Edna Rawlings

Date of Award

Spring 1968

Document Type

Thesis - campus only access

Rights

© The Author(s)

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