A Note on Methodology in Using Children's Figure Drawing to Assess Racial and Cultural Differences

Abstract

One of the traditional uses of children's figure drawings in research work both in art education and in psychology has been to assess the self-concepts, ego strength, and other variables of racial, ethnic, and cultural differences. To do this, the experimenter will usually give samples of Negro and white children or adults an 81/' by 11' sheet of white or cream paper and a pencil and ask them to draw a person.' 2,3 The drawings are then analyzed for the degree to which the Negro subgroups draw or portray a Negro and use Negroid features, including skin color, in their drawings. Dennis, in 1957, found that his samples of American Negro college students and American Negro children almost invariably drew a Caucasian rather than a Negro when asked to draw a man.4 In a replication of his 1957 study conducted in 1967, approximately 18 to 20% of his Negro sample drew a Negro figure on a figure drawing test.5 Dennis argued that this increase within a ten-year period reflected an improvement in the Negro's self-concept. In general, the results of these studies by Dennis indicate that approximately 20% of the Negro samples portray Negro persons in their drawings. He concludes from this evidence that the Negro tends to identify with the white person in our society and has not yet developed a favorable attitude toward his own racial appearance. The specific question of the validity of using figure drawings to assess variables of self-concept among the blacks in this country is, of course, only one aspect of Dennis's work in this area. In order to demonstrate the effects of cultural learning on drawing behavior, some other cross-cultural studies which he and other investigators have conducted will be reviewed, before returning to the question of methodology. In another cross-cultural study, Dennis compared drawings done by American and Armenian subjects and found that the experimental evidence was consonant with his hypothesis that the location of drawings on a page depended in part upon whether the subjects when writing their primary language typically begin at the top left or at the top right part of the page.6 In a second cross-cultural study, Dennis and Raskin compared the drawings of Turks, Japanese, and Cambodians (his top left group) and found that the results from this study corroborated his earlier findings: the human figure drawing tends to be located in that quadrant of the page within which the subject begins to write.7 These two studies support the hypothesis that a factor other than personality plays a marked role in creating intergroup differences in this aspect of drawing. These studies are important in that they help to establish the importance of the learning factor upon drawing behavior. Clearly, the identification of various instructional variables that may influence drawing behaviors is important to the use of drawings in art education research, as well as to any overall consideration of drawings as part of a psychological foundation for art education. Dennis and Uras conducted a later study of the religious content of drawings made by cloistered nuns.8 This study was based on Dennis' hypothesis that when individuals are asked to draw a man, they frequently will draw those persons whom they admire and hence the contents of their drawings will reflect their positive and negative social values.9