Relationship between height of human figure drawing and depression.

Abstract

Little research has been established concerning human figure drawing height as a measure of depression. Furthermore, of the limited research that has been done, controversy exists concerning the Draw-A-Person Test assumption that a significant relationship does exist between small human figure drawing height and depression. The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significant difference in the height of human figures drawn by male and female subjects, who were either depressed inpatients, nondepressed inpatients, or nondepressed nonpatient subjects. The sample consisted of 180 subjects between the ages of 18 and 61 (M = 30.7), residing in Kansas. Each of the three groups contained an equal number of females and males that were randomly selected. Two groups of subjects were inpatients in a state psychiatric hospital. The third group consisted of employees at the same state hospital. The instrument used to determine the depth of depression in the inpatient subjects was the D scale score on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. The Beck Depression Inventory was the instrument used to determine nondepression in the nonpatient group. The Draw-A-Person Test provided a human figure height measurement. A 2x3 between-subjects analysis of variance was used to analyze the data. The results indicated that there were no significant differences at the .05 level of confidence between the sexes or between the three groups.