Preferred Symbols by Gay Men Utilizing the Arrington Visual Preference Test: A Jungian Based Construct
Graduation Date
Fall 2010
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy
Degree Granting Institution
Notre Dame de Namur University
Program Name
Art Therapy
Dean
Lisa Bjerknes, MD, MBA
First Reader
Laury Rappaport, PhD, ATR-BC
Second Reader
Doris Arrington, EdD, ATR-BC
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of gay men, a subset of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community. Following an art-based quantitative research design, the research project sought to answer the question: What are the preferred symbols of gay men based on the Arrington Visual Preference Test (AVPT) a Jungian construct. Thirty-one gay men from the San Francisco Bay Area participated in the study. The results of the study indicated that the most preferred Jungian archetype was transformation and the least preferred Jungian archetype was masculine. The research question explored gave insight on how symbolism is viewed by gay men.