Measuring the Validity of the Formal Elements Art Therapy Scale Among the Person-Picking-an-Apple-From-a-Tree and the Draw-A-Person-Standing-in-the-Rain
Graduation Date
Summer 2002
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
Lizbeth Martin, PhD
First Reader
Richard Carolan, EdD, ATR-BC
Second Reader
Arnell Etherington, PhD, MFT, ATR-BC
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the Formal Elements Art Therapy Scale, developed by Linda Gantt and Carmello Tabone can be effectively applied to other art based drawing assessments other then the Person Picking and Apple from a Tree. In the case of this research the Draw a Person Standing in the Rain drawing assessment was chosen to apply the FEATS scale. The population of subjects were adolescents suffering with emotional problems in both in-patient and day- treatment settings. Each subject was given three drawing tasks. The first being a scribble drawing used only for the purpose of a warm up activity. The second and third drawings were the Draw a Person Standing in the Rain and the Draw a Person Picking an Apple From a Tree. The two drawings were rated on fourteen scales and then analyzed using a statistical T-test. The results indicated that out of the fourteen scales, four proved to be significantly different on the .05 level. The results also indicate that the remaining 10 scales exhibited similarities between the two drawings. The findings verified that it is possible to use ten out of the fourteen FEATS scales to assess other drawing assessments.