The use and abuse of human figure drawings.

Mental Health Professionals' Use of Drawings in the Assessment of Children

“…He also states that the use of HFDs may persist due to the process of partial reinforcement--a match between drawing interpretations and behavior will sometimes be found merely by chance. Kamphaus and Pleiss (1993), in their response to the review by Motta et al (1993a), add that since evidence of reliability has been found for some scoring systems, many users may assume that this means that the validity of the measure has also been demonstrated. In their response to reviewers, Motta, Little, and Tobin (1993b) add the possibility of confirmatory bias as a reason for the continued use of HFDs.…”

“…Users of projective drawings maintain that experienced clinicians are able to make better use of drawings than are inexperienced users (Motta, Little, & Tobin, 1993a) but empirical evidence to support this is lacking. The view that with a trained clinician, insights can be obtained that would be difficult to obtain otherwise is expressed by Leichtman (2004) when he states that he supports their use due to the "richness and uniqueness of the material they produce, ... and the fact that in skilled hands the tests can provide remarkable insights into personality and psychopathology...all investigatory methods involve tradeoffs" (p. 310).…”

“…In a response to Motta et al (1993a), Gresham (1993) provides these explanations for the continued use of HFDs despite their poor research support: "(a) illusory correlation, (b) false belief in incremental validity, and (c) impossibility of disconfirmation" (p. 182). He also states that the use of HFDs may persist due to the process of partial reinforcement--a match between drawing interpretations and behavior will sometimes be found merely by chance.…”

“…These findings are especially interesting since the research regarding the validity of projective drawings in assessment has been mixed and concerns about their value as an assessment tool exist. A number of researchers have reached the conclusion that there is inadequate research support for their validity and state that their use in assessment is not supported Knoff, 1990;Motta et al, 1993). Other writers have also attempted to explain this puzzling finding-the popularity of an assessment tool that has so little research support (Garb, 2003;Gresham, 1993).…”

“…They conclude that the validity evidence is too weak to support their use, even as screening measures of intelligence. Another review (Motta et al, 1993a) concluded that figure drawings…”