Do Human-Figure Drawings of Children and Adolescents Mirror their Cognitive Style and Self-Esteem?

Abstract

The investigation probed relationships among human-figure drawing, field-dependent-independent cognitive style and self-esteem of 10–15 year olds. It also attempted to predict human-figure drawing scores of participants based on their field-dependence-independence and self-esteem. Area, stratified and multi-stage random sampling were used to select a sample of 600 10–15 year olds residing in Kolkata city, India. The sample comprised three age-based strata: 10 and 11 year olds; 12 and 13 year olds; and 14 and 15 year olds. Each stratum comprised 100 girls and 100 boys. Participants’ actual age-ranges were 10 years 1 month – 11 years 10 months (first stratum); 12 years 4 months – 13 years 10 months (second stratum); and 14 years 3 months – 15 years 9 months (third stratum). Goodenough-Harris Drawing Test, Group Embedded Figures Test and Coopersmith Inventory were administered for assessing participants’ human-figure drawing, field-dependence-independence and self-esteem respectively. Results revealed significant positive relations among pertinent variables. Participants’ human-figure drawing scores could be significantly predicted by their field-dependence-independence and self-esteem.