Interpretation of the House-Tree-Person

(HTP) Psychology Test

The House-Tree-Person (HTP) test in clinical psychology is part of the series of a group of
projective tests which help in the assessment of personality traits. The HTP test is also administered
to identify mental disorders like schizophrenia. Get to know how this test is interpreted.
Rujuta Patil

Last Updated: Jun 3, 2018

Did you know?
Based on Goodenough's Draw-a-Man Test (1926), HTP was originally a
technique to assess children's intelligence.
If we are told to draw some object, we might either shy away (for not being
good at it) or we might enjoy the process itself (regardless of our artistic
abilities). Whichever way, drawing gives us a sense of revisiting our childhood
memories full of such fun activities.

Similar to writing, the act of drawing forms a powerful medium for us to let our
emotions out. In fact, as we know, and some of us might even have experienced,
that forms of fine art, including drawing, are seen to be stress-releasing
activities. Off the mind and onto the paper. This is the knack behind a
psychological personality test like the House-Tree-person test. It is like reading
our minds from what we have scribbled or sketched on a sheet of paper.
The House-Tree-Person (HTP) Test
This test is a technique developed by John Buck, an early clinical psychologist
in 1948, which was later updated in 1969. This, and such other contributions
from him are remarkable, especially on the background of his meager and
scattered formal training in psychology.
HTP is a projective personality test, wherein a person responds to a given
stimuli, and the responses give clues about the person's hidden emotions or
internal conflicts. The individual taking the test is asked to draw primary objects
like a house, tree, and a person; that's why the name. These drawings render a
measure of self perceptions and attitudes inherent in a personality.
The HTP test is adhered to, along with other techniques, in cases where there is
likelihood of brain damage, other neurological disorders, or to evaluate brain
damage in patients of schizophrenia.

It can be taken by anyone who is 3 years old or above. The test consumes
around 150 minutes. The person taking the test is first asked to draw, and then
is later questioned based on his/her illustration. Usually, the first phase of
drawing is colored using crayons, and then pencil is used for the next phase.
The instructions given to the test-taker are quite short and simple. "Draw me as
good a house as you can", states it well. Once the picture of a house is
completed, the test-taker is asked to draw a tree, and later a person.
Questions
After the test-taker draws objects, the administrator poses some questions to
him/her. These help in knowing the reasoning behind how an individual
perceives himself and his surroundings.

- Is it a happy house? What is the house made of? Who stays in the house?
What is it like at night? Do people visit the house?

- Is the tree alive? What kind of a tree is it? How old would that tree be? Who
waters the tree?

- How does that person feel? Is that man/woman happy? How old is that
person?
Interpretation
The interpretation of the HTP test is said to be a difficult task. The older version
included both, quantitative and qualitative elements for interpreting results.
However, the quantitative assessment methods are no more considered
appropriate, with the progress in testing methods. So, interpretation relies
heavily on subjective reading of the pictorial representations. Every sketch can
symbolize many ideas: the level of satisfaction with the house at present,
degree of rigidity of the subject's personality, contact with reality, fears or
obsessions, intra-personal balance, the person's subconscious picture of
his/her development, etc.
Emotional strengths or attributes like self-esteem and confidence can be
reflected from how dark or light the lines in the drawing are. Flexibility or rigidity
of a personality and the strength of ego can easily be deciphered from the
details of the drawing.
Here are some primary attributes associated with these three illustrative objects
of a HTP test.
House
Roof: The intellectual side of a person. It is associated with fantasizing and
ideation too. Too little focus on the roof may suggest fears of ghosts in the attic.

Wall: An indication of how strong one's ego is.

Doors and Windows: The relation of the person with the world outside. It hints
at the receptiveness, interaction with others, and perception about the
environment.

Size: If the house is small, it might mean a rejection of one's life at home, If big
there’s happiness and satisfaction in life.

Pathways: Those leading directly to the door exemplify accessibility and

openness, unlike when there is no pathway, indicating a closed, solitary, and
distant state of mind. A fencing around the house could be a sign of
defensiveness.
Tree
Tree Trunk: The inner strength of an individual might be suggested from the
tree trunk drawn. A slender trunk and large branches may suggest a need for
satisfaction. Dark shadings of the trunk suggest anxiety about one's self.

Branches: These might also hint towards an individual's relation with the
external world. A tree drawn without branches might indicate less contact with
other people.
Person
Observations about where the person is placed on the page, the amount of
detail shown from the drawing, etc., are part of significant interpretations. The
person drawn of the same gender is usually taken to be the test-taker himself
or herself.
Arms and Hands: Position of the hands, open of closed fists, and specific
gestures, if any, indicate behavioral traits.

Legs and Feet: Drawing or not drawing feet, and the stance or the overall body
posture is reflected from little strokes of lines, helping gauge inherent emotions
like fear.

Face: A lot of details concentrated on the face of the person drawn can be
representative of one's desire to present oneself in an
acceptable/satisfactory/adequate social light.
This test is not considered to be reliable or valid by many, as it is mainly a
subjectively scored personality test. There also are variations in how the test is
administered: in one or two phases, all drawings on single or separate sheets of
paper, asking to draw two different persons (one of each gender), either using
crayon or pencil (not both), different questions asked, etc.

Disclaimer: This compilation is only for informative purposes. Consult a

psychoanalyst for the proper conduct and interpretation of an HTP test.