The Relation Between Adjustment As Shown On The Pikunas Graphoscopic Scale and Teachers' Ratings of Children Between the Ages of 10 and 12

Abstract

In the last fifty years research in psychology and practical needs have stimulated the development of many psychological tests. The area of psychological testing in which there has been an especially vigorous growth in recent years has been that of the projective technique. This technique attempts to gain a "global" rather than an "atomistic" evaluation of personality, seeing it as a dynamic, integrated unit and as a depth phenomenon. It has been assumed by projective technique theorists that the "global" view is possible because the phenomenon of personality can be tapped without greatly modifying it. Another assumption they make is that personality can be evaluated by the study of behavior and achievement as they are expressed through means of the projective technique. One type of projective technique is concerned with evaluating the personality of a subject through the study of his graphic productions. Projective drawing tests as such are a relatively recent development in psychology. The interest psychologists have shown in developing drawing tests was prompted by the spontaneous nature of drawing production. At present there are many drawing tests. The Goodenough Draw-a-Man test, Napoli's finger-painting technique, the Mira Myokinetic test, the Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt test, and the Machover Draw-a-Person test are among the many tests utilizing the subject's drawing production. Others which have become familiar, through use and discussion, are the Geosign test, J. N. Buck 's House-Tree-Person technique, Karl Koch's Tree Test, the Wartegg Test, and G. M. Kinget's scoring analysis of the Wartegg which she calls the Drawing Completion Test. In general, the tests mentioned have been used with both children and adults. However, projective techniques using drawing seem to be especially suitable for testing children. They can be made to appear much less frightening and offer an opportunity for the child to engage more or less spontaneously in an activity which he usually regards as pleasant and amusing. Besides these advantages, projective drawing tests have those features which are common to all projective techniques. One of these features, a view of the personality as a whole has already been mentioned. Another advantage of the projective technique is that the subject produces less self-conscious revelations. This occurs because there are no objective items in the test materials, items for which there is only one correct response. In general, the subject does not know anything about the remote psychological inferences that can be made from what to him seem to be "meaningless" responses. The Pikunas Graphoscopic Scale, hereafter usually referred to as the PGS, the test with which this thesis is concerned, is this type of test. It is a projective technique utilizing children's drawings. The aspects of personality which it seeks to examine are intelligence, self-expressive balance, and adjustment level. This is achieved by an analysis of the elements of drawings initiated through responses to unstructured and semi-structured stimuli presented in the test. The PGS may be used with both adolescents and children. It may be administered either individually or in a group situation. A more detailed description of this test and its administration and scoring procedure is included in Chapter IV, Methodology, page 46.