HOUSE TREE PERSON

• PRESENTED BY:
• SADAF SAJJAD
• WAJIH-UL-FATIMA
• Definition:
The house-tree-person
test (HTP) is a projective personality test, a
type of exam in which the test taker responds
to or provides ambiguous, abstract, or
unstructured stimuli (often in the form of
pictures or drawings). In the HTP, the test
taker is asked to draw houses, trees, and
persons, and these drawings provide a
measure of self-perceptions and attitudes.
• House-Tree-Person Test :
Another
projective personality assessment method is
the House-Tree-Person (HTP) Test.  It uses
freehand drawings of house, tree, and person,
quite similar to Draw-A-Person (DAP) Test. 
Though it was originally devised as a method
for measuring intelligence, it is now widely
used to measure personality.
• The HTP was developed in 1948, and updated
in 1969. Tests requiring human figure
drawings were already being utilized as
projective personality tests. Buck believed
that drawings of houses and trees could also
provide relevant information about the
functioning of an individual's personality.
• The examiner will be requested to draw
sketches of a house, tree and person in
separate pencil and crayon drawings. .
• The post-drawing interrogation is composed
of 60 questions aimed at gathering the
examinee’s feelings about the figures he or
she has drawn.  Three assumptions are also
considered as the basic interpreting guidelines
for HTP.  The house figure reflects the test-
taker’s home life and relationships with the
family.  The tree figure reveals the
experiences of the test-taker. 
• The person figure describes the test-taker’s
relationships with other people, aside from his
or her family.  In general, the test reveals
areas of conflict or concerns that need
immediate concerns.  A child who draws
himself looking out from his or her house
signifies feelings of being trapped, abused.
• Purpose:
The primary purpose of the HTP
is to measure aspects of a person's personality
through interpretation of drawings and
responses to questions. It is also sometimes
used as part of an assessment of brain
damage or overall neurological functioning.
• Precautions:
Because it is mostly subjective,
scoring and interpreting the HTP is difficult.
Anyone administering the HTP must be
properly trained. The test publishers provide a
detailed 350-page administration and scoring
manual.
• Description :
The HTP can be given to anyone over
the age of three. Because it requires test
takers to draw pictures, it is often used with
children and adolescents. It is also often used
with individuals suspected of having brain
damage or other neurological impairment.
 Cont………..

• The test takes an average of 150 minutes to

complete; it may take less time with normally
functioning adults and much more time with
neurologically impaired individuals.
 PHASES

• First Phase:
During the first phase of the test, test
takers are asked to use a crayon to draw pictures,
respectively, of a house, a tree, and a person.
Each drawing is done on a separate piece of paper
and the test taker is asked to draw as accurately
as possible.
 Cont…………..

• Upon completion of the drawings, test takers

are asked questions about the drawings.
There are a total of 60 questions that
examiners can ask. Examiners can also create
their own questions or ask unscripted follow-
up questions.
 CONT…………………………….

• For example, with reference to the house, the

test creator wrote questions such as, "Is it a
happy house?" and "What is the house made
of?" Regarding the tree, questions include,
"About how old is that tree?" and "Is the tree
alive?" Concerning the person, questions
include, "Is that person happy?" and "How
does that person feel?"
• Second Phase:
During the second phase of the test,
test takers are asked to draw the same pictures
with a pencil. The questions that follow this phase
are similar to the ones in the first phase. Some
examiners give only one of the two phases,
choosing either a crayon, a pencil, or some other
writing instrument.
 Variations

• First variation:
• Test administration involves asking the
individual to draw two separate persons, one
of each sex.
• Second variation:
• variation is to have test takers put all the
drawings on one page.
 Uses

• The primary use of the HTP, however, is

related to the qualitative scoring scheme in
which the test administrator subjectively
analyzes the drawings and the responses to
questions in a way that assesses the test
taker's personality.
 CONT……………

• For example, a very small house might

indicate rejection of one's home life. A tree
that has a slender trunk but has large
expansive branches might indicate a need for
satisfaction. A drawing of a person that has a
lot of detail in the face might indicate a need
to present oneself in an acceptable social
light.
 Questions

• The Questions . . .Ask questions after each

picture is drawn: 
Person :
Who is this person, how old are they, what's
their favorite thing to do, what's something they
do not like, has anyone tried to hurt them, who
looks out for them? 
House :
Who lives here, are they happy, what goes
on inside, what's it like at night, do people
visit here, what else do the people in the
house want to add to the drawing? 
• Tree :
What kind of tree is this, how old is it, what
season is it, has anyone tried to cut it down,
what else grows nearby, who waters the tree,
trees need sunshine to live so does it get
enough sunshine?
 Interpretation
• House interpretations are closely based on
research and on the symbolic meaning of the
aspects of the house. They should hopefully
be nurturing places with normal levels of
detail and normal size. Too little and the client
may reject family life; too big and they may be
overwhelmed by it.
• Lines and walls represent boundaries and
strengths of the ego, thus weak lines in the
structure of the house are weaknesses in the
ego, while strong lines are problems with
anxiety.
• The roof symbolizes the fantasy life, and extra
attention to it can indicate extra attention to
fantasy and ideation, while incomplete, tiny,
or burning roofs can indicate avoidance of
overpowering and frightening fantasies (think
about fears of ghosts).
• Windows, doors are relate to openness,
willingness to interact with others, and ideas
about the environment. Thus, shades,
shutters, bars, curtains indicate some
unwillingness to reveal much about yourself
• Tree interpretations: The trunk is seen to
represent the ego ,sense of self, and the
intactness of the personality. Thus heavy lines
or shadings to represent bark indicate anxiety
about one's self, small trunks are limited ego
strength, large trunks are more strength...
• Limbs are the efforts our ego makes to "reach
out" to the world and support "things that
feed us" what we need. Thus, limbs detached
are difficulties reaching out, or efforts to reach
out that we can't control.
• Small branches are limited skills to reach out,
while big branches may be too much reaching
out to meet needs. Club shaped branches or
very pointy ones represent aggressiveness.
• Leaves are signs that efforts to reach out are
successful, thus no leaves could mean feeling
barren.
• Roots are what "ground" the tree and people,
and typically relate to reality testing and
orientation. No roots can mean insecurity and
no feeling of being grounded, overemphasized
roots can be excessive concern with reality
testing, while dead roots can mean feelings of
disconnection from reality, emptiness, and
despair.
• Other detail:
Christmas trees after
the season is over can mean regressive
fantasies (thinking about holidays and family
and good times to make yourself feel better).
• Person interpretations: Here, the idea is that
the person of the same sex is like you, and the
person of the opposite sex is what you may
not admit is like you..
• Some interpret drawing the opposite-sex first
as a sign of gender confusion, which has not
been well-supported.
• Arms are the way we reach out to the
environment, and hands the way we effect it.
Open arms indicate willingness to engage,
closed arms are defensiveness, disconnected
arms are powerlessness... pointed fingers or
balled fists can be aggression, hidden or
gloved hands can be anxiety or antisocial
tendencies...
• Legs and feet are also like the roots of trees,
and represent grounding and power too. If cut
off at the bottom of the paper (think of cutting
someone off at the knees) it can mean loss of
autonomy, small feet (inadequate base) can
indicate a need for security, while big feet can
indicate the same.
• The neck separates the head (cognition) from
the body (drives and needs), so no neck is no
separation, long neck is desire for more
separation of the two, etc...
• Mouth is how we get needs met (think Freud
and oral stuff), so big or open mouth is
neediness, closed tight mouth is denial of
needs or some passive-aggression, and
frowns, sneers, and smiles mean with they do
in real life.
• There is limited support for oral-dependency
themes, and more for slash mouths and teeth
to be consistent with verbal aggression.
• Drawing clowns (hiding face and person),
robots (loss of emotions in a psychotic way),
cowboys (masculinized needs), snowmen
(rounded bodies, regressive themes), stick
man (childish or regressive themes) etc... can
mean what is noted in parenthesis above.
• Excessive details are consistent with some
obsessiveness when dealing with anxiety,
while a marked lack of detail can indicate
withdrawal, low energy, or boredom.