PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF

HUMAN FIGURE DRAWING

Psychometric Properties:

NORMATIVE STUDY FOR DEVELOPMENTAL ITEMS ON HFD (Koppitz)

The normative study for the frequency of the developmental items on HFDs of boys and girls
from ages 5 to 12 was carried out. The sample of this normative study was composed of 86 entire
classes of 1865 public school pupils from ten different elementary school. 33% were children
from 2 schools in the residential section of Midwestern metropolis, 54% were from five schools
situated in a small industrial town and the remaining 13% were from three schools in small
villages or rural areas of the same states. The students were from three different income classes.
One third of the boys and girls were from the low income communities, one third from middle
income and the last third from high income class. Among the students from 86 school classes,
there were 19 kindergarten classes, 11 first grades, 12 second, third and fourth grades and 10
each of the fifth and sixth grades.
Information was not available regarding the mental ability of the students but it was assumed that
they represent the full range of intellectual potential normally found in a cross section of public
schools. The classroom administration was carried out by the class teacher by following the
instructions that have previously been discussed. However, in the case of kindergarten the HFDs
were obtained individually by the writer. The HFDs were checked by the writer for the 30
developmental items and results were presented in terms of percentage of children who revealed
each item on their HFDs at each age level. These percentages are classified into four frequency
categories.
The first category is of expected items which are present on 86-100% of the drawings. As these
items are present on almost all HFDs, they constitute the minimum items one can expect from
normal children and at a given age level, the absence of these expected item is considered
significant. Their absence might be indicative of immaturity, retardation or the presence of
regression due to emotional problems. The second category consists of items that are present on
51-85% of the HFDs and are designated as common items. Scoring items found on 16-50% of
the HFDs are included in the third frequency category named as not unusual. Neither the
presence nor the absence of Common items and the not unusual items is regarded as
diagnostically important.
The fourth category is of exceptional items and they are present on 15% or less of the HFDs.
They are believed to be quite significant and unusual and it is hypothesized that they are only
found on HFDs of children with above-average mental maturity.

Normative data for developmental items on HFD’s of boys:

It can be seen that the frequency of occurrences of each item increases at succeeding age levels
until the item is present on 90% or more of the all the drawings. The number of Expected items
increases while the number of Exceptional items decreases from year to year until age 10.
The following is a summary of the developmental items that fall into the Expected, Common,
Not unusual and Exceptional categories at each age level:
Five year old boys:
a. Expected Items: It includes six basic items on their HFDs: head, eyes, nose, mouth, body
and legs. The omission of any of these parts must be considered clinically significant.
b. Not Unusual Items: The two -dimensional arms and legs, arms pointing down, neck,
hands, ears, and eyebrows are not unusual.
c. Common Items: Arms, feet, fingers and hair is common.
d. Exceptional Items: It includes 10 items Pupils, two-dimensional feet, and correct
numbers of fingers, arms at shoulder, good proportion, nostrils, profile, elbow, two lips
and knee. It is also the exception to find more than one piece of clothing on HFDs of five
year old boys. None or only one clothing item is to be expected.
Six year old boys:
a. Expected Items: The items on their HFDs are the head, eyes, nose, mouth, body, legs,
arms, feet and two dimensions on the arms.
b. Common Items: Feet, fingers, hair and two dimensions on arms and legs.
c. Not Unusual Items: Arms pointing down, neck, hands, ears, eyebrows, pupils, two
dimensional feet and the correct number of fingers are not unusual.
d. Exceptional Items: Arms at shoulder, good proportion, nostrils, elbow, two lips and
knee. It is the exception to find four or more pieces of clothing on a HFD of a six year old
boy. One or two piece of clothing is common, two or three clothing items are not
unusual.
Seven year old boys:
a. Expected Items: The head, eyes, nose, mouth, body, legs, arms, feet and two dimensions
on the arms.
b. Common Items: Two dimensions on the legs, hair, arms down, neck and fingers.
c. Not Unusual Items: It is not unusual to find hands, ears, eyebrows, pupils, and two
dimensions on feet, correct number of fingers, arms at shoulder and good proportion.
d. Exceptional Items: Profile drawings, nostrils, elbow, two lips, and knee remain
exceptional.
At this age level, it is not unusual to find, anywhere from no clothing item to four or more pieces
of clothing on HFDs.
Eight year old boys:
 a. Expected Items: The head, mouth, eyes, nose, body, legs, arms, feet and two dimensions
on arms and legs.
b. Common Items: It is common at this age level for boys to draw hair, arms pointing
down, neck, fingers, and hands.
c. Not Unusual Items: Two dimensions on feet, eye brows, pupils, ears, correct number of
fingers, arms at shoulder, good proportion and profile.
d. Exceptional Items: Nostrils, elbow, two lips and knee.
It is not unusual to find no clothing at all or anywhere from one to four or more clothing items on
drawing of eight year old boys.
Nine years old boys:
a. Expected Items: Ten items are expected on their HFDs: head, eyes, nose, body, legs,
arms, feet and two dimensions on arms and legs.
b. Common Items: Hair, arms down, neck, fingers, hands, ears, pupils, feet in two
dimensions and arms at shoulder.
c. Not Unusual Items: The correct number of fingers, eyebrows, good proportion and profile
drawings.
d. Exceptional Items: Nostrils, elbow, two lips and knee.
Any amount of clothing or lack of clothing may appear on HFDs of nine year old boys and
should not be considered unusual.
Ten year old boys:
a. Expected Items: 13 items fall in this category head, eyes, nose, mouth, body, legs, arms,
feet, two dimensions on arms and legs, hair, arms pointing down, and neck.
b. Common Items: Fingers, hands, ears, pupils, two dimensions on feet, arm at shoulders,
eyebrows and correct and correct number of fingers.
c. Not Unusual Items: Good proportion, profile, nostrils, elbow and two lips.
d. Exceptional Items: Two lips and knee.
It is not unusual to find no clothing or anywhere from one to four or more pieces of clothing on
HFDs of ten years old boys.
Eleven year old boys:
a. Expected Items: Head, eyes, nose, mouth, body, legs, arms, feet, two dimensions on arms
and legs, hair, arms pointing down and neck.
b. Common Items: Fingers, hands, ears, pupils, two dimensions on feet, arm at shoulders,
eyebrows, and correct number of fingers.
c. Not Unusual Items: Good proportion, profile, nostrils, elbow and two lips.
d. Exceptional Items: knee.
It is not unusual to find anywhere from zero to four or more pieces of clothing on the HFDs of
boys at this age.
Twelve year old boys:
a. Expected Items: The head, eyes, nose, mouth, body, legs, arms, and feet, two dimensions
on arms and legs, hairs, arms pointing down, and neck.
b. Common Items: Fingers, hands, ears, pupils, two dimensions on feet, arm at shoulders,
eyebrows, and correct number of fingers.
c. Not Unusual Items: Good proportion, correct number of fingers, profile, nostrils, elbow
and two lips.
d. Exceptional Items: knee.
The drawing of less than two pieces of clothing on HFDs of 12 year old boys is exceptional and
must be regarded as clinically significant.
Normative data for developmental items on HFDs of girls:
Since boys and girls mature at a somewhat different rate and since some consistent differences
were found on the HFDs of boys and girls.
The following is a summary of the developmental items that feel into the Expected, Common,
Not unusual and Exceptional categories at each age level:
Five year old girls:
a. Expected Items: At least seven items are expected: the head, eyes, nose, mouth, body,
legs and arms.
b. Common Items: The presentation of feet, hair, fingers, and two dimensions on arm.
c. Not Unusual Items: It is not unusual to find two dimensions on legs, and neck, hands,
eyebrows, pupils, arms pointing down, ears and the correct number of fingers.
d. Exceptional Items: Eight items are exceptional: feet two-dimensional, good proportions,
nostrils, two lips, elbow, profile, arms at shoulders, and knee.
Six year old girls:
a. Expected Items: The head, eyes, nose, mouth, body, legs, arms, feet, and hair.
b. Common Items: Only three items are found to be common fingers, and two dimensions
on arms and legs.
c. Not Unusual Items: Neck, hands, eyebrows, pupils, arms pointing down, ears, correct
number of fingers, and two dimensions on feet.
d. Exceptional Items: Good proportion, nostrils, two lips, elbow, profile, arms at shoulder
and knee.
Seven year old girls:
a. Expected Items: 11 expected items on their HFDs, the head, eyes, nose, mouth, body,
legs, arms, feet, hair, and two dimensions on arms and legs.
b. Common Items: Fingers, neck, arms pointing down, hands, eyebrows and pupils.
c. Not Unusual Items: Ears, the correct number of fingers, two dimensions on fee, arms at
shoulder, good proportion, and nostrils is not unusual.
d. Exceptional Items: Elbow, profile. Two lips and knee.
Eight year old girls:
a. Expected Items: Head, eyes, nose, mouth, body, legs, arms, hair, feet and two dimensions
on arms and legs.
b. Common Items: fingers, neck, arms pointing down, hands, eyebrows and pupils.
c. Not Unusual Items: The correct number of fingers, two dimensions on feet, arms at
shoulders, good proportions, nostrils and two lips.
d. Exceptional Items: Profile, elbow and knee.
Nine year old girls:
a. Expected Items: Head, eyes, nose, mouth, body, arms, legs, feet, and hair, two
dimensions on arms and legs and neck.
b. Common Items: Fingers, arms pointing down, hands, eyebrows, pupils, two dimensions
on feet and arms at shoulder.
c. Not Unusual Items: Six items are not unusual ear, correct number of fingers, good
proportion, nostrils, two lips and elbow.
d. Exceptional Items: Profile and knee.
Ten year old girls:
 a. Expected Items: Head, eyes, nose, mouth, body, arms, legs, hair, feet, two dimensions on
arms and legs, neck and arms pointing down.
b. Common Items: It includes arms at shoulder, hands, eyebrows, pupils, and feet two
dimensional feet.
c. Not Unusual Items: Correct number of fingers, good proportions, nostrils, two lips and
elbow.
d. Exceptional Items: Profile and knee.

Eleven year old girls:

a. Expected Items: Head, eyes, nose, mouth, body arms, legs, hair, feet, two dimensions on
arms and legs, neck and arms pointing down.
b. Common Items: Arms at shoulder, hands, eyebrows, pupils, feet in two dimensions,
fingers and good proportions.
c. Not Unusual Items: Correct number of fingers, ear, nostrils, two lips and elbow.
d. Exceptional Items: Profile and knee.
Less than two clothing items are diagnostically significant.
Twelve year old girls:
a. Expected Items: Head, eyes, nose, mouth, body, arms, legs, feet, two dimensions on arms
and legs, neck, arms pointing down, and arms at shoulders.
b. Common Items: Hands, eyebrows, pupils, feet in two dimensions, fingers, and good
proportions.
c. Not Unusual Items: It includes six items correct number of fingers, ear, nostrils, two lips,
elbow and profile.
d. Exceptional Items: Knee.
Less than two clothing are the exception and diagnostically significant.

Reliability:
 Inter rater reliability:
The reliability of scoring HFD for developmental items and for emotional indicators was
determined with the aid of qualified psychologist. The other psychologist and the writer
scored independently of each other the HFDs of 10 randomly selected second grade pupils
and of 15 children referred' to the school psychologist because of learning and behavioral
problems. The 25 protocols were checked for the presence of 30 developmental items and
30 emotional indicators. The 2 examiners checked a total of 467 different items for all
drawings of these 444 or 95 percent of items scored were checked by both psychologists
whereas 23 items or 5 percent were scored by only 1 or the other of the investigators.
The average number of items scored for each of the drawing was 19.on 10 of the
HFDs,there was a perfect agreement as to the scoring ,while 15 of the HFDs ,the 2
examiners differed by one or two points only.

 TEST RETEST RELIABILITY

Test-retest reliability Measure the scores twice with the same instrument. Reliable measures
should produce very similar scores.
It has been found that the correlation between original scores and scores obtained by a retest on
the following day after almost 6 months was .093+.006 for 194 first grade students.
The probable error of estimate of a true IQ earned on the drawing test is approximately 5.4 points
at all ages from 5-10years.
Additional evidence as to the reliability of a test is furnished by the variability of the scores
within single age groups. It may be said that the greater the variability the less reliable is the test.
The coefficient of variability remains very nearly constant for each of the seven age groups.
Ages 11 and 12 have not been included, since the test does not measure the upper level of ability
at those ages.

Validity (Goodenough)
A great correlation exists between test score and grade placement. A study of promotions made
during a tree-semester period by 162 children who had been tested in the first grade shows that
test has distinct value in predicting future school success.
In a study it was judged whether tests contribute anything to a prognosis of school success or not.
A group of 286 fourth and fifth grade children were given Army Alpha, the Drawing test and
Form B of the Trabue Completion. Teacher’s estimates of intelligence were also taken. Army
Alpha was found to show highest correlation with grade progress ratio (r=0.691), the drawing
test, Trabue Completion and teacher’s estimate correlated 0.581, 0.598 and 0.597 with grade
progress ratio.
It was also conducted on 334 children along with Stanford-Binet. Significant correlations have
also been found with a number of primary group tests.
Influence of Artistic Talent on the Score: Children who appear to possess special artistic talent a
likely to make higher score on test than others of equal general ability-examination of drawings
which make high scores on test leads to the opinion that keen powers of analytic observations are
made more potent factors in producing high scores than is artistic ability in the ordinary sense of
term.
Influence of Special Training on Scores: effect of special instruction in drawing was also
checked. It was found direct training in human figures does affect the test results to some extent.
Direct coaching according to the method used for scoring was given to one first-grade class. A
control drawing was first obtained from each child. On each of the two following days a half
hour period was devoted to coaching on the drawing. On afternoon of second day of coaching
test was given again and a week later another drawing was obtained. 37 children were present of
all five tests. The data shows that in majority of cases, specific training does affect score;
however the primary art training in schools does not has any appreciable effect upon the score.
Sex differences: the drawings of boys and girls present very marked sex differences of
qualitative nature a sex difference in school progress is necessarily be accompanied by sex
difference in the average score earned on drawing test.
Indication of psychopathic: psychopathic figures show following qualities; verbalist type
drawings, individual response, drawings showing evidence of flights of ideas and uneven mental
development. In one school with an enrollment of about 450 children nine drawings were found
which showed one or more of these characteristics to a fairly marked degree. These formed two
percent of the total drawings.

Validation of Development Item on HFDs: (Kopptiz)

A series of studies were conducted by writer to determine whether the 30 developmental Items
could meet the criteria for all items. A developmental item was defined as a sign on HFDs of
children that was:
 1. Related primarily to age and maturation and that increased in frequency of occurrence as
the child got older
2. That was not markedly affected by the instructions given to the child nor by the drawing
medium he used
3. That was not greatly influenced by school learning nor
4. By the child’s artistic ability.
Increase in frequency of occurrence:
The Developmental Items were related to age and maturation and that they increased the
frequency of occurrence at successive age levels until maximum occurrence was reached.
The effect of the drawing medium used and the instructions given on the HFD test were
examined. This study (Koppitz, 1965) was designed to test the hypothesis that HFDs of
Kindergarten pupil are but little influenced by the drawing medium used or the instructions
given. Children of aged 5 years 6 months to 6 years 9 months were taken, including 45 boys and
49 girls and the HFD was administered individually. Observation of the children during the test
administration revealed a marked difference in the behavior of boys and girls. The writer
checked all pencil drawings as a group and then crayon drawing as a group and found that most
difficult items (i.e., two lips, elbow, knee, profile, and good proportion) were omitted and the
three items for scoring clothing were reduced to a single clothing item. The drawing medium
used seemed to have a little effect on HFDs of girls.
The effect of learning and maturation on HFDs:
The purpose of this study was to determine whether the changes found on HFDs after a period of
time were primarily due to the children’s increase in age and maturation or due to learning. The
subjects for this study were 179 children, 89 boys and girls. At that time, the children’s age mean
was 5 years 3 months and when they were tested nine months later their age mean was 6 years
and 0 months. All the HFDs were scored for 23 Developmental items only, because of the age of
the subjects. The two examiners checked a total 0f 203 and 206 developmental items on the 15
protocols. On 199 of the Developmental Items checked, there was complete agreement and they
were scored by both psychologists, while 11 items were scored by only one or the other of the
examiner. Thus there was 95% agreement by the two psychologists on all the items scored. All
the HFDs made at the beginning of the school year were then compared with those produced at
the end of the school year. Considerable improvement was revealed on the later HFDs over the
first of drawings. At the end of the year, 20 0f the 23 Developmental Items were found more
often on the HFDs than they had appeared at the beginning of the year. These findings show that
there was a marked improvement on the HFDs but they don’t reveal that whether this
improvement was the result of maturation or due to a year’s training in kindergarten.
The influence of high or low performance ability on HFDs:
The following study was designed to determine whether children whose WISC performance IQ
scores were considerably higher than their Verbal IQ scores would differ on their HFDs from
children with a low WISC performance IQ scores and a higher Verbal IQ scores, if both group of
youngsters were matched for WISC full Scale IQ scores. The subjects for this study were 24
pairs of children matched for age, sex and WISC Full Scale IQ score none of the subjects were
retarded or psychotic and none had any gross motor impairment. Their ages range was from 5
years 8 months to 12 years 10 months. All of the HFDs were checked by the investigator for
presence of the 30 Developmental Items without any knowledge as to which of the two groups
given child belonged to. The result of this study offer support for the hypothesis that
Developmental Items on HFDs are not markedly influenced by a child’s performance ability but
are primarily related to age and maturation.