House-Tree-Person

John N. Buck
Target test takers
Most suitable for individuals over 8 years of age
 ● projective personality test to get
details from an individual
regarding their experiences

Purpose of the ● provides more than one

● Test that projects personality

test elements

● Aiding in diagnosis with other

assessment tools
● HTP was designed by John
Buck.
● HTP Manual and Interpretive
Guide has been substantially
revised.
● The material has been
combined and restructured to
Brief History
improve the clinical
interpretation.
Description
Two step procedure:
1. Nonverbal creative
Asks the examinee to make a freehand pencil drawing of a house, tree and
person.
2. Structured post-drawing inquiry
Asks questions regarding the individual’s association of their drawing.
However, for some it goes beyond. They are asked to draw again with crayons and
ask a follow-up questions regarding the colors.

After the procedure, the individual is evaluated for signs of psychopathology based on
the content of their drawing. However, a precaution is given due to the difficulty of
interpretation. It is important that the individual is properly trained and supervised.
Administration
Setting and time
● Client should be comfortable.
● Room is quiet and free from distractions.
● 30 to 90 minutes to administer and also depends on the requests of the
examiner
● 3 types of drawing are requested

Materials
● HTP Drawing Form
● Interpretation Booklet
● Pencil (No. 2)
● Crayons – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown and black
● Clock, timer, or stopwatch

Pencil Drawings
1. Present the HOUSE form, place the top at
the client’s point of view.
2. House form should be presented
horizontally for proper evaluation while the
tree and person should be presented
vertically.
3. Test user should have a clear view of the
page that the client is drawing – noting,
observation, and recording.
4. Let the client choose a pencil and say: “I
want you to draw the picture of a house.
You may draw any kind of house you
wish, and do the best you can. You can
erase as much as you like. You may take
as much time as you need just do your
best.”
5. When the individual expresses his/her ability
remind that it is not a test of their artistic ability
just give their best and their best effort.
6. No using of any straight edge material remind
that it is a freehand drawing.
7. Record the following:
A. Initial latency time (when the client
begins drawing after instructions were
completed
B. Order of details drawn
C. Length of pauses and specific details
being drawn when pauses occurs
D. Spontaneous verbalizations or display
of emotion when something is being
drawn
E. Total time taken in completing the
drawing.
8. When drawing the person, additional drawing
may request, will eventually add 10-15
minutes.
The main purpose of this is too elicit information about the content and
context of their drawing. Any line of inquiring that is useful should be
given when individual permits.
● Unusual position, details and relationships should be noted and
investigated.
● Implied details such as basic components extending beyond page edge
should be investigated
● Details added during inquiry should be identified
● Post drawing inquiry section, ground line and sun are to be added.

Post-Drawing Inquiry
From manual:
House
● Would you like to own that house yourself?
Ask the individual to describe the differences between the house drawn and the
house he or she actually occupies, and the likelihood that he or she would ever own a
house similar to the one drawn
Tree
● Where is the tree actually located?
If the response is “in the woods” or “in a forest,” ask about the significance of the
wood or forest of the individual.
Person
● How does he/she feel?
Always ask “Why?” unless there is reason to believe that doing so will compromise
rapport
 1. Features of drawings are
presented here. Check for
those that apply.
2. Record for the unusual
Interpretative pauses,
behaviors.
comments and

Concepts 3. Check those aspects of

proportion, perspective,
Checklist detailing and color that may
indicate the presence of
pathology.
 1. Ruler is provided at the back to note
the proportion, perspective and
detail size.
2. Some common clinical hypotheses
are presented in Interpretive
Concepts Checklist. However, all
Interpretative depends on the patient history,
presenting problem, and the results

Concepts of additional assessment procedure.

3. Clinical experience or the

Checklist supervisor’s w knowledge of HTP

Manual, knowledge of projective
drawing literature should moderate
interpretation of HTP drawings and
results.
Reliability and Validity

Assessment of intelligence correlates highly with other

intelligence tests such as the Wechsler adult intelligence scale
(WAIS).
As with other subjectively scored personality tests, there is
little support for its reliability and validity.
Scoring
1. objective quantitative manner
2. subjective qualitative manner
 1. Check the placement, size,
orientation, and general quality
and deviations for certain areas.
2. Put a check next to any area
where drawing characteristics
appear to be deviant.
Interpretation 3. Once each figure has been
assessed in this way, evaluate
Drawing Evaluation post-drawing responses,
consistency of quality from
figure to figure, client’s history
and age and results of any other
assessment available.
 1. Runs on 2 extremes: through eager
acceptance to hyperegotism and through
indifference, defeatism and abandonment
to frank rejection
2. Attitude toward each drawing will be
influenced by the associations aroused by
the object of the drawing. Person is the
Attitude most refused due to several reasons:
● Many maladjusted individuals have
their greatest difficulties in
provides a rough measure of interpersonal relationships
overall willingness to reject a new ● Drawing the human figure seems
and perhaps a difficult task to arouse more asscoiations at the
conscious or near-conscious level
than the house or tree
1. Acute body awareness makes poorly
adjusted individuals uncomfortable

Time, latency
and pauses
number of details and their method of
presentation should justify the time
taken to produce the drawing. 3
drawings usually take 2 and 30
minutes to complete.
● Quickly – seem to do so to
rid of them the unpleasant
task
● Excessively – obvious
reluctance to produce
anything or intense
emotional significance of
symbolism involved
● When individual pauses
for 5 seconds during each
drawing, conflict is
strongly suggested.

Criticalness and
Erasing
ability to view one’s work objectively,
criticize it and learn from that criticism
is one of the first intellectual functions
to suffer in the presence of strong
emotionality and/or organic processes.
Verbal comments their artistic
ability is common but when
excessive it can indicate the potential
for pathology especially when there
is no attempt to correct the verbally
identified flaws.
Behavioral indication of self-
criticisms:
● Abandonment of uncompleted
object with resumption of the
drawing elsewhere on the
drawing form page, without
erasure of the abandoned
drawing
● Erasure without attempt at redrawing.
Usually restricted to one detail which
apparently has aroused a strong conflict;
can produce the detail but not twice
● Erasure with redrawing. Redrawing is
improvement. However, may indicate
pathology if the attempts at correction
represent hyerpmeticulousness, a futile
attempt to attain perfection.

Comments
compulsive need to structure the
situation as completely as possible or a
compulsive need to compensate for an
obsessive idea of feeling activated by
something in the drawing.
● Verbalizations may include
materials suppressed during
previous interviewing includes
ideas
● Spontaneous remarks – most
meaningful when evaluated
relative to the part of the
drawing that has just been
completed.
General
Drawing
1. Drawn image to drawn form
Features 2. Detail to drawn image

Proportion
 1. Horizontal placement

2. Vertical placement

3. Central placement
General 4. Page turning

Drawing 5.

6.
Page quadrants

Page edges

Features 7. Relationship to viewer

8. Apparent distance from viewer

Perspective 9. Position

10. Transparencies

11. Movement

12. Consistency
 1. Essential details
General 2. Nonessential details
Drawing 3. Bizarre details
4. Detail dimensionality
Features 5. Detail shading
6. Detail sequence
Detailing
7. Detail emphasis
8. Line quality
 ● Clarify certain aspects that
are not clear, give the
individual the opportunity to
project feelings and attitudes.
● Average well-adjusted person

Post-Drawing – house as occupied by a

living being, sees the person

Inquiry and tree as living.

Maladjustment – response
such as unoccupied, deserted,
dead, ill, dying
● I don’t know responses – not
a no but also not a satisfactory
answer.
 ● Responses should be evaluated
through their relevance. It

Post-Drawing should be referring

themselves or confabulated
to

Inquiry material should be noted.

● Irrelevant details drawn
represent members of the family
or persons with whom the
individual is intimately
associated in daily life. Inquiry
should always be made.