The Head-Body Ratio in Human Figure Drawings of Schizophrenic and Normal Adults

Empirical evaluations of human figure drawings: 1957-1966.

“…In the past 10 years, all six have been fulfilled. The DAP has been factor analyzed (Nichols and Strumpfer, 1962); reliability has been assessed, taking into account the criticism of percentage of agreement as a measure of reliability (Guinan & Hurley, 1965;Hammer & Kaplan, 1964a, 1964bLitt & Margolies, 1966;Starr & Marcuse, 1959;Strumpfer, 1963); extended drawing techniques have been used (Berryman, 1959;Craddick, 1963;Handler & Reyher, 1964;Kamano, 1960;Whitaker, 1961); clinical studies have reported the results of drawings obtained serially during the course of an illness (Mabry, 1964;Rosenberg, 1965); patterns of signs of psychopathology have been assessed (Grams & Rinder, 1958;Griffith & Payman, 1959;Hoyt & Baron, 1958;Koppitz, 1966aKoppitz, , 1966bKoppitz, , 1966cRibler, 1957;Wildman, 1963); and specific hypotheses concerning psychopathology and figure drawings have been tested (Armstrong & Hauck, 1961;Baldwin, 1964;Davids & DeVault, 1960;Fisher, 1959;Gray & Pepitone, 1964;Kurtzberg et al, 1966;Lawton & Sechrest, 1962;Orgel, 1959). The research published in the recent past is clearly more sophisticated than the studies reported prior to 1957.…”

“…Vane and Eisen (1962) found that poorly adjusted kindergarten children were more likely to omit essential body parts from their drawings than were well-adjusted children. Baldwin (1964) found regressed schizophrenics were more likely to omit parts of the figures they drew. Mogar (1962) found a small but positive relationship between scores on the Manifest Anxiety scale and omissions.…”

“…The size of the head relative to the size of the body has been found related to regressed schizophrenia (Baldwin, 1964), but not to school achievement (Lourenso et al, 1965) or organic problems (Bieliauskas & Kirkham, 1958).…”

Human figure drawings: Their utility in the clinical psychologist's armamentarium for personality assessment.

“…Swensen's conclusion: Machover's hypothesis is not supported. Baldwin (1964) carried out a quantitative analysis of the head-body ratio of figure drawings by schizophrenic and normal controls. He found that the predominance of the head in figure drawings by the psychotic group significantly differentiated this group's drawings from those of the controls.…”

“…There were only three items out of a possible 67 which reached significance in testing the differential power of cues supposingly capable of distinguishing between drawings by schizophrenics and normals; it appears quite likely that some other factors were operating that might be minimally related to clinical experience in the area of drawing analysis. Baldwin (1964) investigated the assumption from body-image theory that the body portion of the body image disintegrates as a function of severe emotional disturbance, and this state is reflected in a person's human figure drawings. Machover (1951) reports her clinical impression that in the figure drawings of senile or severely disturbed persons the head is frequently all that is drawn.…”