Human Figure Drawing

Human Figure Drawing (HFD)

Reference: Koppitz, E. (1968). “Psychological evaluation of children’s human figure drawings.” New York: Grune & Stratton.
Purpose: This projective drawing is used primarily to see indicators that may signify emotional problems in children. The assessment also has a developmental component, which supposedly indicates a child’s developmental level and intelligence, although this component is not empirically proven.
Ages: 5-11
Materials: one blank white piece of 8 ½ X 11 paper and a #2 pencil with an eraser.
Administration: The evaluator hands the child a piece of paper and a pencil. “Draw a whole person. It can be any kind of person you want to draw, just make sure it is a whole person and not a stick figure or a cartoon figure.” There is no time limit, but the evaluator should take notice of the amount of time used.
Inquiry: The evaluator should say something like, “Tell me about your drawing.” A child may be asked to clarify certain aspects of his/her HFD. One example is a girl who seemingly omitted feet in her drawing. When asked about the missing feet, the girl replied, “I don’t like my big feet, so I’m not going to include feet on my person.” This explanation provides useful information for the evaluator and would result in a more accurate assessment.
Interpretation: Interpreting the HFD is two-fold. The first is based on the Developmental Items. To score the Developmental Items, the evaluator would use the HFD scoring manual to see which items are Expected, and if any items are considered Exceptional. According to Koppitz, certain items are expected to be included in a child’s drawing at any given age. For example, typical 7 year-old males are expected to include a head, eyes, nose, mouth, body, legs, arms, feet, and 2-dimensional arms. If an expected item is not included, then one point would be deducted from the baseline score of 5. Exceptional items are items that are considered to be very advanced for a given age. One point is added to the developmental score for each exceptional item included. Koppitz posits that each number, 1-7, correlates with a general IQ score, therefore, indicating a level of intelligence.
The other interpretation of the HFD is based on Emotional Indicators. These emotional indicators are classified into 3 categories: Quality, which includes things such as poor integration of parts of the figure, asymmetry, shading, and size of the figure; Special Features, which includes features such as an oversized head, presence of teeth, genitals, arm length, etc; and Omissions, which includes the absence of features that one would expect to see, such as eyes, nose, mouth, arms, and other typical body parts. Taking these 3 categories into consideration, the evaluator notes “Salient Features,” and refers to the appendices of the HFD scoring manual to note “emotional indicators.” Two or more of these emotional indicators may suggest that the child is encountering emotional difficulty.
It is noted that the evaluator should consider the entirety of the produced picture in conjunction with the child’s background and behavior during the art-making task in his/her evaluation of the child.
Strengths: This assessment is typically completed in a short amount of time and requires only the most basic of art materials. It can be completed almost anywhere. Koppitz also presents clear instructions for interpretation of the drawings. This assessment, though not empirically based, does offer a baseline of information about a child in a non-threatening way.
Limitations: This assessment only produces one drawing, so the amount of information provided is minimal. Koppitz does not offer much insight into what may indicated by the drawings, other than a vague “emotional disturbance.” This assessment is not empirically based.
Reflection: I initially thought that the developmental scoring system was poorly constructed, but after conducting a few HFD’s, I recognize that it may be more accurate in predicting intellectual level than I thought. It seems like an HFD is a logical place to start a therapeutic relationship with a child, so I will probably use this assessment in my practice. I do understand that an HFD is only one small piece of a child’s overall “puzzle.”