Abstract
This study evaluated accuracy of the Draw-A-Person Questionnaire in distinguishing a diagnostically varied group of mental hospital patients from controls. Subjects were 166 mental health inpatients at a large public hospital, paid $3 for participation, and 166 controls selected from a group of 1382 adult volunteers to match the patients on age, race, and sex. All subjects were given the Draw-A-Person questionnaires following drawings of a male and female. Questionnaires were scored for Denial, Demeaning, and Likes to Hurt Others scales. In three 2×2×2 (status × sex × race) analyses of variance, patients scored higher than controls on all scales. African-Americans (n = 242) scored higher than Euro-Americans (n = 78) on Denial. Further analysis of an interaction between patients' status and sex for Denial suggests that only male patients differed from controls, the former group showing higher Denial scores.
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