Developmental trends in the house and tree drawing of the House-Tree-Person technique.

摘要

This study identified developmental trends and gender differences in 586 children's house and tree drawings of the House-Tree-Person technique. A variety of traditional drawing features were examined, including: aspects of placement, size and proportional variations, shading, line quality, integration, transparencies, and amount and kind of detail. Subjects were from regular kindergarten through sixth-grade classes in predominantly white, middle-class, Northeastern communities and ranged in age from 5 to 12 years. Drawings were administered in groups in the classroom setting. Each drawing was done on a separate sheet of paper. Interrater reliability for all scoring variables was good to excellent, ranging from.35 to 1.00. Chi-square analyses indicated that quality features of the house drawing as measured by line evenness, perspective, wall balance, proportion, and integration were significantly related to age. Analogous results were also found between age and line evenness, proportion, and integration for the tree drawing. Frequencies for these significant variables showed developmental trends such that sketchy lines, dimensionality, balance, proportion, and proper integration all steadily increased with age. For both the house and tree, amount of detail and detail elaboration were also found to be significantly related to age, becoming steadily more common as children got older. Chi squares also showed that girls were more likely than boys to embellish their windows, draw suns, include botany details, fruit in trees, and draw more overall detail in tree pictures. Frequency tables for all variables are presented. It was suggested that study be replicated on a more representative sample of subjects covering a wider age range. Ultimately, a true normative study should be undertaken.