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HFD Interpretation

Clinical Psychology (COMSATS University Islamabad)

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“HUMAN FIGURE DRAWING TEST”

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DEFINITION

A Projective measure is a psychological

instrument that allows a clinical psychologist
or a psychoanalyst to judge a person's
capabilities and habits by projecting their
thought process and emotional responses via
their drawings and the images they are shown.

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DEVELOPMENTAL HISTORY
 The interest in drawings has a well documented
history in Europe.

 Goodenough reports that , as early as 1885, an

article appeared in England by Ebenzer Cooke in
which he described developmental stages in
children's drawings.

 Numerous other studies and papers by different

psychologists and educators have followed
since then over the past 75 years.

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 Over the years, the emphasis in the literature shifted

from comparative investigations of graphic productions
by children and primitive people to clinical analysis of
paintings and drawings of disturbed children, to
longitudinal studies of youngsters from their first
scribble to mature drawings, and to the assessment of
mental maturity by means of HFD.

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BASIS
 The Human Figure Drawing test
is a non-verbal test, mainly
based on visuo-spatial and
constructional abilities.

 It underlies the theory of

Machover(1949), Urban(1963),
and Handler(1985).

 It is based on the Freud's theory

of 'repression' and also effected
by Sullivan's theory of
interpersonal relationships.

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 It is stated that the HFD will reveal 'general

conflicts and concerns' of the client when
combined with other clinical information and
assessment to determine general cognitive
functioning.

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METHOD

 The HFD test requires that the test taker draws

'a whole person' at the request of examiner in
his presence.

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INTERPRETATON METHODS

 Two main approaches for the interpretation of HFD

exist today
 1. clinicians who regard HFD as a projective
technique and analyze drawings for the signs of
unconscious needs, conflicts, and personality
traits.
 2. representative of the second school of thought
approach HFD'S as a developmental test of mental
maturity.

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 The drawings will be scored in two different types

of objective signs:
 Developmental Items
 Emotional Indicators

 One set of signs on HFD is believed to be primarily

related to children's age and level's of maturation.
These signs are called the 'Developmental Items'.

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 Emotional indicators reflect the individual's

anxieties, concerns, and attitudes. An emotional
indicator has to meet three criteria:

 Clinical validity (difference between HFD's of

children with and without emotional problems.

 It must be unusual and occur infrequently on the

HFD's of who are not psychiatric patients.

 It must not be related to age and maturation, i.e, its

occurrence and frequency on HFD's must not
increase solely on the basis of increase in age.

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Instructions for HFD (Koppitz)

 “On this piece of paper, I would like you to draw a
WHOLE person. It can be any kind of a person
you want to draw, just make sure that it is a
whole person and not a stick figure or a cartoon
figure.”

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1. Quality Signs:

Broken or sketchy lines

Poor integration of parts of figure
Shading of the face or its parts
Shading of the body and/or limbs
Gross asymmetry of limbs
Figure standing by 15 degrees or more
Tiny figure, 2" or less in height
Big figure, 9" or more in height
transparencies

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The Special Features:

 Tiny head, 1/10th of total height of
figure
 Large head, as large or large than
body
 Vacant eyes, circles without pupils
 Side glances of both eyes, both
eyes turned to one side
 Crossed eyes, both eyes turned
inward
 Teeth
 Short arms, not long enough to
reach waistline

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Cont…
 Long arms, that could reach
below knee line
 Arms clinging to sides of body
 Big hands, as big as face
 Hands cutoff, arms without hands
and fingers
 Hands hidden behind back or in
pockets
 Legs pressed back or in pockets
 Legs pressed together

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Cont…
 Genitals
 Monster or ghost like figure

 Three or more figures spontaneously

drawn
 Figure cutoff by the edge of paper

 Baseline, grass, figure on edge of paper

 Sun or moon

 Clouds, rain, snow or flying birds

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VALID EMOTIONAL INDICATORS

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POOR INTEGRATION OF PARTS OR FIGURES

 Poor integration appears to be associated with any
or several of the following:
 Instability
 A poorly integrated personality
 Poor coordination or impulsivity
 Poor Integration seems to indicate immaturity on the
part of the child which may be the result of a
developmental lag, neurological impairment,
regression due to serious emotional disturbance or
all of these.

Reznikoff and Tomblen found that this was associated

with organicity in adults. Hamer attributes poor
synthesis of HFD's to emotional disturbances.

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Shading

 Shading is a manifestation of anxiety

 The degree of shading is related to the intensity of

anxiety within the person.

 Overtly aggressive/ stealing

 Poor self concept

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Shading of the body

 Body anxiety
 Psychosomatic complaints
 Guilt feeling
 Shading of the hands:
 Anxiety related to the activities done by hands
like guilt related to masturbatory activities, or
stealing specifically shading of arms reflects guilt
for aggressive impluses.

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Shading of the neck:

 Anxiety related to handling of stress

 Try to control anxious impulse

 Acting out behavior

Shading Of legs:
Anxiety about size and physical growth or concern
about sexual impulses.

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Gross asymmetry of limbs:

 Aggressive
 Brain injured
 Poor coordination & impulsivity

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Slanting figure:

 Sense of instability
 Lack of balance

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Tiny Figure
 Depression
 Extreme sense of withdrawal
 Poor self image
 Big figure:

 Aggressive
 Immature
 Poor inner control

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Transparencies
 Psychosomatic complaints
 Acting out behavior
 Immaturity
 Tiny head:

 Hostile feeling towards others

 Poor achievement
 Maladjusted individual

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Crossed Eyes
 Paranoid ideation
 Inward eyes represents hostility & anger
Teeth:

 Aggressive
 Sadistic tendency if teeth were sharp
 Oral sex
Short Arms:

 Inadequacy towards task

 Difficulty in approaching others

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Long Arms
 Aggressively approaching others
 Striving for the need of affection, & love
Arms clinging:
 Defensive individual
 Good impulse control
 Paranoid schizophrenic
 Rigid & reserved
Big Hand:
 Aggressive
 Acting out
 Stealing things

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Hand cut off:

 Poor achievement
 Helplessness
 dependent
Legs pressed:

 Fear of attack
 Tension related to sexual activity
 Rejection of someone who approached them
Genitals:

 Acute body anxiety

 Psychopathology

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Monster (Ghost)
 Poor self control
 Environmental stress
 Inadequacy
Three or more figures spontaneously drawn:

 Need of dependency
 Poor school achievement
 Problem with their self identity
Clouds, sun or moon:

 Under pressure of authority figure

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Snow or Moon

Interpsychic conflict
Omission of eyes:

 Denial/ refusal of problem

 Limited social interest
Omission of nose:

 Shy/ withdrawal behavior

 Feeling of helplessness
 Castration anxiety/ masturbatory guilt

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 Psychosomatic complaints
 Depressed
 Anxiety/ insecurity
 Refused to communicate with others
Omission of arms:

 Depressed & helplessness

 Sexual guilt/ overt hostility

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• Omission of legs:
 Insecurity
 Intense Anxiety
 Omission of feet:
 Feeling of Insecurity
 Helplessness
 Hopeless attitude towards others

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Omission of neck:
 Psychosomatic complaints
 Immaturity
 Poor inner control

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Non-Valid Emotional Indicators

Big Head:
Intellectual inadequacy

Immaturity

Migraine headaches

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Vacant eyes or non-seeing eyes

 Guilt feelings over voyeuristic tendencies
 Vague perception of the world
 Emotional immaturity
 Lack of discrimination
 Depression

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Sideway glance of both eyes

 Suspiciousness
 fear

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Hidden hands
 Contact difficulties
 Guilt
 Need to control aggression
 Unwillingness to deal with a situation

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Figure cut off by the edge of the

paper
 Insecurity
 Poor coordination
 Weak inner control
 Poor judgment

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Baseline or grass
 Need for support
 Insecurity

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The sun or moon

 Parental love and support
 Controlling adult authority
 Psychosomatic complaints

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Broken or sketchy lines

 Fearfulness
 Insecurity
 Feelings of inadequacy
 Anxiety
 Stubbornness
 Negativism

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Koppitz gave importance to following

three things for interpretation of
Emotional Indicators

 What does he draw? A person has significant value.

 How does he draw? It represents self-image.
 Why does he draw? Expression of emotions.

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Interpretation
 The protocol of HFD displays that she manifests the
signs of suspiciousness, verbally aggressive and
poorly integrated personality. She also exhibits
marks of psychosomatic complaints and guilt
feelings over her aggressive impulses. Streaks of
need for change are also displayed in the layout
may be due to some serious emotional
disturbances. She also reveals signs of fearfulness,
insecurity, feelings of inadequacy, and
stubbornness along with negativism

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