Effects of different emotion terms on the size and colour of children's drawings

Abstract

UK Acknowledgements:The research team would like to thank all of the children and teachers who participated in this project. 2 Effects of different emotion terms on the size and colour of children's drawings AbstractRecent studies have shown that, when an affective characterisation is given to a topic, children adjust the size and colour of those topics in their drawings: children increase the size of drawings of topics characterised as "nice", do not always decrease the size of topics characterised as "nasty", and use differential colouring systematically to distinguish between "nice" and "nasty" topics in their drawings (Burkitt, Barrett, Davis, 2003a, 2003b, 2004. The present experiment was designed to examine whether these specific effects only occur with the terms "nice" and nasty", or whether they also occur with another pair of positive and negative terms, "happy" and "sad". 102 4-7 year olds were divided into two groups and asked to draw either a baseline, "nice" and "nasty" man, or a baseline, "happy" and "sad" man. It was found that the valence of the characterisation (positive vs. negative), as well as the specific pair of words which was used, systematically influenced both the size and the colour of the children's drawings.These results show the importance of understanding the exact emotions in question when interpreting children's drawings on the basis of size and colour.

Reflections of Fears of Children to Drawings

“…In a study by Oya and Ovec (2017), the most commonly used colors in the fear drawings were black, red, brown and yellow. Similar results were found in a study by Burkitt et al(2009).…”

“…In this context, it is possible to find many studies examining children's drawings in the literature. In this subject, there are some studies such as expressing the inner world of children through drawings; Bati (2012), Bornholt & Ingram (2001), Cherney, Seiwert, Dickey & Flichtbeil (2006), Savas (2014), drawings of children about their emotions; Beck & Feldman (1989), Burkitt, Barrett & Davis (2009), Ovec (2012), Sayil (1998), Thomas & Jolley (1998), reflection of anxiety and fear situations on children's drawings; Burkitt & Newel (2005), Cimen (2009), Fox & Thomas, (1990), Golomb (2004), Guvenc (2005), Inan (2006), Kindap & Sayil (2005), Misailidi & Bonoti (2008), and color selection and use; Bal (2010), Burns & Kaufman (1972), Oya & Ovec (2017).…”

Reconsidering the scribbling stage of drawing: a new perspective on toddlers' representational processes

“…The process of naming a scribble does not indicate the child's desire to represent reality or his or her recognition of some sort of similarity between the drawing and a random object, but, instead, it would simply indicate that the scribbles have become the symbolical witnesses of experiences with objects experimented by the child, mostly through an affective behavior. This would also mean that children alter the line's quality, color, and shape to express their feelings about certain topics, and that these vary depending on whether they regard them as positive or negative (Burkitt et al, 2009 ).…”

A Study of the Factors Affecting Colour Meaning and Emotional Response

“…This was their affect with colours used in pictorial conventions used in colouring books and other media. In their study, children were able to use colours in representing positive and negative characters and emotions (Burkitt, Barrett & Davis, 2009). Ou et al (2010) studied the effect of age on colour emotion and found that for single and light colour pairs and achromatic colours were rated less on emotion scales for old subjects than young observers.…”