What I've learned

I'm not sure if I included this in the sections of assessments, but here are some things I have learned throughout the course of this class.
I definitely learned about many kinds of assessments, but through these I learned which ones coulde be appropriate for certain types of populations. You may not want to use an assessment that was mainly created for children on an adult, as they could possibly find this offensive and not take the assessment seriously. This could then greatly skew the results of the assessment, and it might not work the way that you had intended. I also learned from this class some assessment that I may want to use in the future with clients, and some that I already have. One I have that I have found very useful is the bridge drawing. This is a wonderful assessment for being able to tell where people are and where they want to go with their goals and such in therapy. Quite useful. Through this process, I have also found assessments that I do not like, such as the Ulman. Maybe it was the day we did this assessment on, but it just seemed very tedious, and I could see this going in a bad way if you wanted to give this to children.
Overall I think I have learned a great deal about a great many assessments, some I liked, some I did not, however I believe all of the information that we have gone over in class is valuable and useful toward the future, which is not quite what I had envisioned at the beginning of this class. I am glad to find out that I enjoyed this class and learning all of the assessments and accompanying information, even if it was a lot to take in so late at night. I do plan to keep looking up and looking into varying assessments that may pique my curiosity, as there is always something new to learn.

March 24 Favorite Kind of Day, Bridge Drawing Technique

Today in class we discussed the FKD and the Bridge drawing technique. As the bridge drawing technique is one that we have gone over in other classes, and have used on clients before, I found the FKD much more interesting.

The FKD is the Favorite Kind of Day drawing. It was a very relaxing assessment to do, bringing back memories of sitting poolside in Italy in the summer watching the swallows dive into the water. I think that I will almost certainly use this assessment in the future, of course with the right client. I think this could be used well in older (geriatric) patients going through the end of life phase, because they can re-live in a way good memories and times that they’ve had

As for the bridge drawing, I definitely will and have used this as a rapport builder. I’ve put this to use, but I have given some restrictions on material (as the directive in class did not). This is mainly limited to the materials I have access to. I also had the individual put themselves on the bridge, other than having them draw an arrow what direction they were going on it. This assessment, for me, ended up being very telling of how my day had been.

I enjoyed doing the FKOD after the Bridge drawing, as it put me in a better mood, and I did not have to think about the day I had, and I could think about happier times. As in my bridge drawing, there is the problem of it making the client think about something (such as my bad day) more than they would like, thus bringing up difficult things to deal with, which could be a good thing or a bad thing for the therapist and the client.

March 17 Birds Nest Drawing

This assessment (which was a lot of fun!) was created by Donna Kaiser in 1996 is used to assess attachment. It can be used with both children and adults. It is very interesting in that it has no time limit, and that you create a story to go with the picture. I think this makes it particularly different than other assessments. This is also an interesting directive because it has been used on various populations, and to me seems like you could get a pretty consistent result from all. This assessment is also very specific, dealing with attachment theory explicitly. This directive can also seem less threatening than using a family drawing, as you are not mentioning anyone specifically, but one can infer the same things from this type of directive.

Oops, I left this out the last one! for the 3rd of March

When the UPAP was done in class, I found it to be fun and relaxing, as the day had been fairly stressful. However, being in art therapy, as well as an artist, and having had a stressful day, I felt the need for more direction with the drawings, as they are fairly undirected. Of course, this is not without reason, as it is to achieve those underlying principles. I can see how this would be fairly difficult to use on children, as it is time consuming and you need a good deal of attention to complete it.

Also discussed in class was the LECATA, or the THE LEVICK EMOTIONAL AND COGNITIVE ART THERAPY ASSESSMENT, created by Myra Levick in 1986. This assessment is a cognitive art therapy assessment.

March 3 Lecata; Ulman Personality test

This article (The Conference Article) is basically about a panel of three art therapists who presented three of the most frequently used art therapy assessments for adults at the American art therapy association conference in 1998. The assessment were: UPAP (Ulman1992/1968), DDS (Cohen1988), and the PPAT (Gantt, 1990). The basics of these assessments are:

UPAP-Ulman Personality Assessment Procedure (Add Hamilton doc), Diagnostic Drawing Series, and Person Picking an Apple from a Tree. Four questions were asked of each assessment.

The Upap is a four-drawing series (the examples of mine done in class are given) with the underlying principles of a novel experience, a directed experience, a playful experience, and making a decision.

The DDS is a three-series drawing art interview, meant to help attain a diagnosis in a clinical setting using things such as graphic indicators.

The PPAT is just a one picture assessment, focusing on how people draw to assess personality.

The objectives of this presentation (and this article) at the AATA conference was to appreciate “similarities, differences, and unique qualities” in these three assessments (Cox, Agell, Cohen, Gantt, 2009).

Crit Card

For this assignment, I picked crit card number 1, about General Reaction. The piece I used it on is a picture by Chaime Soutine-of a side of beef hanging up. Unfortunately I am unable to put it up.
However, here is my Crit Card analysis of it;

general reaction
1. My first response to this painting is that it is kind-of gory but in a pretty way.
2.This work makes me feel happy, as it is closely related to my own.
3.This work makes me think of my undergraduate years, painting.
4. This work reminds me of where my father works
Description
1. In this painting I see a side of beef hanging on a hook
2.As for colors, shapes and textures I see many warm colors, as well as some angular shapes.
3. I do not see any unusual features, other than the content of the painting.
4.I also see a lot of movement in the painting-such as the tendons in the beef kind-of swirling around the page.
5.To me, much of the painting looks dark and textures in a thick fashion (the paint is laid on heavily), but this could be due to age of the painting.
6. This work, I believe, was made by the artist hanging the meat either in his studio, or going into a butcher shop to paint it.
7. There seem to be heavy brushstrokes throughout the painting, with rather thick paint.
8. The artist is viewing the meat straight on as it is hanging, as that is the perspective in the painting.
Formal Relationships/Shapes
1. bright reds and yellows seem to dominate this picture-largely because those are the natural colors in the meat.
2. There is some negative space within this painting, but it is not merely blank canvas. There is not a spot of canvas uncovered. I would not necessarily call them significant.
3.There is movement within this piece caused by the curves of the meat as well as the underlying structure and tendons in it.
4. there is a bit of contrast within this piece, caused by the dark and light shades of the colors used.
5. The figure seems to be pointing slightly upward and to the right.
6.The focus in this work is mainly in the middle, because the image of the meat is so dominant within the painting. the movement in the painting goes upward and to the right. this is the main movement-for me-however there is more caused by the lines in the ribcage and such within the painting.

These are my answers to this specific Crit Card about this painting.

February 17, 2010 Gantt (2009); Brooke articles

Since I lead this class today, I put up the facilitation sheet that I used. It may not make too much sense right now, but I am currently re-working it. I just wanted to have something up!

Give a brief overview of the art therapy assessments that we have learned so far;

KFD-Kinetic Family Drawing-Kinetic Family Drawing-(passed around symbols sheet) good to have on hand –ie already have done a genogram or have family dynamics documented

directions; draw all members of your family doing something Actions Styles and Symbols book

Looks for certain things family members position of self image distance of self in age to others size and action of figures

To observe dynamic relations in families

PPAT-Person Picking an Apple from a Tree

DDS-Dynamic Drawing Series-one of the most widely researched diagnostic instruments available to art therapists. It is not based on an interpretation of the content of drawings but on an empirical correlation between graphic characteristics and psychopathology.

Crit Cards-look at works of art and their contexts to see what they tell us about the human condition. Asks 3 main questions; what is this? What does it mean? What is it worth?

Bender-Gestalt-

• By Lauretta Bender, 1938

• One of the most used psychological tests.

• Individually administered, paper and pencil test that contains 9 geometric figures.

• Bender (1938) operated under the assumption “that the visual gestalt function is a fundamental function associated with language ability and closely associated with various functions of intelligence such as visual perception, manual motor ability, memory, temporal and spatial concepts and organization” (p. 112).B-G; Psychopath for adults and assess for kids, iq and brain damage and visual disorders,

HTP-House Tree Person; projective personality test.

Measures aspects of persons personality, can also assess brain damage or neurological functioning

KHTP-Kinetic House Tree Person; same basically but htp on same page and in action –understanding of individual and feelings, self concepts and relationships to others and things b/c they may project those feelings to object; how they relate to their environment

DAP-Draw a Person; involves figure drawings as a projection of inner feelings thoughts conflict conceptions can reflect personality features and important aspects of self concept when asked to dap-used in clinical obs for inter psych and inter personal factors

DAF-Draw a Face; 25 pages displays scenes of kids playing, faces blank purpose to obtain a measure of child's self concept on various personality dimensions ie depend vs independant, introvert to extravert

DDS-Dynamic Drawing Series-is a 3 part drawing interview

Which population(s) are most often incorporated into the research on each of the different art therapy assessments? Why? (e.g. DDS: chronically mentally ill ages 13+ why?)

Bender-Gestalt-Developmental test for children and psychopathology in adults

KFD-families dynamic relationships

PPAT-Adolescents and adults

DDS-psychopathology—kind of an everyone—or for axis etc.

HTP-kind of everyone

KHTP-“ “

DAP-more adult-based concepts

DAF-mainly children

What is meant by the description: global impressions of art & graphic equivalents of diagnostic symptoms?

Graphic equivalent of symptoms are formal structural elements within a picture, but these are considered only those symptoms listed in certain specific diagnoses in the DSM. Ie details that signal anxiety. Global variables in art were mentioned, and I believe it means common things through various works or art that can have the same or similar meanings and appearances.

Discuss the differences and similarities in the directives of the assessments that we've learned so far. Why are there these differences? (e.g. what is each directive attempting to elicit? Focus on the DDS.)

All seem variously structured, whereas DDS is has it all-structured, unstructured, and semi-structured. Others are one or the other mainly.

HTP; projective personality test.

Measures aspects of persons personality, can also assess brain damage or neurological functioning

KHTP; same basically but htp on same page and in action –understanding of individual and feelings, self concepts and relationships to others and things b/c they may project those feelings to object; how they relate to their environment

DAP; involves figure drawings as a projection of inner feelings thoughts conflict conceptions can reflect personality features and important aspects of self concept when asked to dap-used in clinical obs for inter psych and inter personal factors

KFD; family members position of self image distance of self im age to others size and action of figures

To observe dynamic relations in families

DAF; 25 pages displays scenes of kids playing, faces blank purpose to obtain a measure of childs self concept on various personality dimensions ie depend vx indep, introv to extrav

B-G; Psychopath for adults and assess for kids, iq and brain damage and visual disorders,

What differing information would the DAF, FEATS, and Anderson's Crit-Card provide over the same drawing(s)? Why?

The DAF would provide more of an individuals self-concept and personality dimensions from the drawings, whereas the

critcards would get at what is important about the drawing-such as the meaning behind it.

The FEATS would rate the global variables in art-in other words the things that are seen across a set of drawings.

In what way did this reading/ topic provoke you to take part in self-directed research, reflective art making, discussion, debate, and/or introspection? In other words what interested you/ or didn't interest you and how did you explore your interests independently?

With research into information from past notes as well as others’ notes (the ones posted…) I found it interesting that ‘recently’ they have begun using the FEATS for children and adult-non-patients. Also, that they have begun to see how it works with other assessments instead of mainly just the PPAT.

February 10. 2010 DDS

Here are my ideas about the article I just read about the DDS, or Diagnotstic Drawing Series by Fowler, J.P., and Ardon. It's calleid Diagnostic Drawing Series and Dissociative Disorders: A Dutch Study.

The DDS is one of the most widely researched diagnostic instruments available to Art Therapists.

The DDS

is not based on an interpretation of the content of

drawings but on an empirical correlation between

graphic characteristics and psychopathology." Fowler, J.P. & Arlen, 2002)

That's an important thing to know for those who do not know much about art therapy.

This study was done in several dutch mental health clinincs, using patients diagnosed with DED or DDNPS, or others described as having dissassociative symptoms.

Administering the DDS on admittance to the

clinic, we observed that patients with DID or DDNOS

were producing drawings with a very similar graphic

profile to the profile described in American studies

(

Mills & Cohen, 1993

) and different to the profiles

of patients with other disorders. The allocation of patients

to a graphic profile is based on which graphic

characteristics are found in the individual drawings

in a series and on differences between the three

drawings in a series. This is a clinical decision based

on research findings, training, and individual rater’s

experience ." (Fowler, J.P. & Arlen, 2002)

Three major research questions were brought about because of the reliability and validity were found to be rather unsure.

Also used in this study was the SCID-D during an interview portion of the study.

The DDS requires that patients produce three drawings out of standardized materials. A rating guide and drawing analysis forms are used to rate the drawings. Note that

Rating the different items is only the first phase in

deciding in which graphic profile an individual DDS

should be placed. A fairly complex decision process is

then used to eliminate membership of various known

graphic profiles by comparing both the ratings of the

individual drawings, and the differences between the

three drawings in a series, with what is expected from

the graphic profile. (Fowler, J.P. &Arlen 2002)

The results were than on average there is an agreement of 82.7% among 3 raters across 23 DAF items.

The agreement between the Multiple Correspondence

Analysis categorization and the clinical

diagnosis was actually better than the agreement obtained

by the two least experienced raters" (Fowler, J.P. & Arlen, 2002)

Inter-rater reliability here is found to be insufficient, as things are seen differently by different people. Also some rate intuitively, which does not work as well in an empiracal study.

This was a very interesting article in pointing outhe discrepencies betw een raters. It is nice to know that there is a correspondence between art therapy and the DDS in helping to find a diagnosis for a dissociative disorder.

February 3, 2010

So this article (and class) was a very interesting one! For it we read the Betts (2006); Computer Analysis and retire "Projective" article. This class was a lot of fun because it really caused a lot of debate when we talked about the article. The article was about the use of computers in art therapy. Is this good, or is this bad? My opinion was that it was good, as it can take away rater bias when rating assessments, however it can not take over the role of the therapist. This is a very interesting thought. If computers did take the place of raters for assessments, how would that work? I foresee several problems with this already such as how will the computers be able yo distinguish different colors? Would that not have to be decided by a human to tell the computer? Well then you run into the problem of color. Colors are different things to different people, especially cross-culturally. Where as someone from one culture may see a color as green, someone from another may see it as blue. So, how would the computer account for this?

February 3, 2010

All kinds of readings for class today!! The most interesting I found to be Betts (2006) Computer analysis and Retire "Projective" article. This article brought up many interesting points for me. Basically, it talks about using computers in psychological assessments. Now I realize that many assessments for psychological purposes may already use computers, but what about art assessments? That is another subject entirely! Can computers be used to measure art? Art is one of those things, to me, that means the most (well, most of the time) to the person who created it. Only they can really tell you its true meaning, or why they picked yellow instead of blue for the dog in their painting. A computer cannot get into the innerworkings of the human mind, so it will never really be able to find out why somebody did a certain thing in an artwork. Also, what about colors? I remember a very good (and very interesting) point being brought up in class. Many cultures see colors differently. What may appear green to someone may appear blue to someone of another culture. So, could the computer take into account the culture of the person being studied? Possibly, but then you run into the problem of what color is what for what culture, and if so many people see many colors differently (take purple and fuschia for instance) what color will be called what and who will decide this to let the computer know?

This is quite a debatable topic...

January 27, 2010. Here is the Crit Card Method!

Ah, so here is the day we did the Crit Cards! The Crit Card Method was created by Tom Anderson. This assessment looks at works of art and their contexts to see what they tell us about the human condition. Three main questions are asked, basically saying, what is this, what does it mean, and what is it worth? This assessment is interesting in that it gives the person different visual images to think about, asking the questions in reference to the person. To me it seems to be from the persons point of view. This can be very telling of things in some cases, such as in the case of an affective disorder. How might you be able to tell? Well, if the picture was of a smiling happy face, and the person being questioned said it was mad, you might have a problem. I think this assessment is interesting in that it can bring up many unique things to people, such as different social standings, different culture meanings, and even different meanings for different genders.

January 20, 2010 Crit Cart Method

No new assessments learned here, although we did read a chapter, by Gr0th-Marnat (Ch 3) all about interviewing techniques. This article says that without interview data, most assessments are useless. This is because they would be lacking in crucial information that you need to know about the person being assessed. Such as; Do they have any social disorders that may make them create something for a directive in a certain way, or could it be because they are just having a bad day? Without this information, you would never know which it is and could potentially lead to a diagnosis of something where one is not necessary. This seems to me to be a pretty dangerous thing!

January 13, 2010 KFD

This weeks main assessment was the KFD, or the Kinetic Family Drawing. This one can help assess problems that may be going on within a family. In a class last semester we got to do this assessment, and it was a fun and interesting one. One can really learn a lot from this one! The main reading (or the one I will talk about) for this week is Groth-Marnat, Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, which are about the KFD as well as the Bender Gestalt Assessment. I think that the most interesting thing I learned from this reading was about the Bender-Gestalt Assessment, as I have heard of many of the others before. It is used to evaluate visual-motor functioning and visual perception skills. The interesting part to me is that it is used in both children and adults, whereas many of the assessments are for one or the other, not typically both. This test can also be used to assess brain damage, as well as the maturation of the nervous system.
Chapter 1 discusses some of the changes assessments have gone through over time, such as their uses throughout psychology, as well as their uses within art therapy. It also has a checklist of sorts for what clinicians should do for assessments, so as to get the most accurate information possible. Chapter 2 then delves more into legal responsibilities and obligations and such.
We also learned about the Bender-Gestalt assessment today. Here is some more information;

Basic Information

• By Lauretta Bender, 1938

• One of the most used psychological tests.

• Developmental test for children and psychopathology in adults

• Individually administered, paper and pencil test that contains 9 geometric figures.

• Bender (1938) operated under the assumption “that the visual gestalt function is a fundamental function associated with language ability and closely associated with various functions of intelligence such as visual perception, manual motor ability, memory, temporal and spatial concepts and organization” (p. 112).

Constructs and Models

• Visual-Motor Perception and Integration

• Bender: Maturation and psychopathology

• Hutt: psychodynamic projective personality

• Koppitz: Development

• Lacks: Neuropsychological screener

Previous Research

• Piotrowski (1995)

“mainstay in the assessment battery…as an assessment tool in appraisal of intelligence…as a screening technique for neuropsychological dysfunction, a clinical tool for sampling visual-motor proficiency, and as a standard projective technique in the assessment of personality” (p.1272)

Visual Disorders

• Agnosia – inability to visually identify

• Hemianopia – half loss of visual field

• Scotoma – small lesions, spots in visual field

• Optic Ataxia – deficit in visually guided hand movements

• Prosopagnosia – facial agnosia

• Alexia – inability to read

• Neglect

Article

six designs (A, 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8) as deHirsch, Jansky, and Langford (1966) and Jansky and deHirsch (1972), a six-point scoring system was devised for greater differentiation in scoring each design. Scoring ranged from 0, for random drawing, scribbling, having no concept of the design, to 3, all major elements present and recognizable with only minor distortions, to 5, accurate representation. Does not capture whole design (see ASB, Innovative Features of BG II (Brannigan, Decker, & Madsen)

History of Scoring

• Qualitative methods based on rating scale demonstrate high reliability and validity, (Sattler)

• Capture whole performance

• Clear construct dimension

New Developments

The revision of the BGT is currently taking place, and includes:

1. New items

2. Memory recall

3. National norms (N=5,000)

4. Clinical validity

5. Time and planning estimates

6. Quantitative/Qualitative scoring

7. Co-normed with Stanford-Binet

8. Test observation form

Assessment Process

1. Review Referral Info
2. Obtain Background, Social, and Setting Information
3. Hypothesis Development
4. Select & Administer Tests
5. Interpret results
6. Intervention Strategies/Recommendation
7. Report
8. Communicate with Teacher/Parent
9. Follow up

Here is a link for an article dealing with the KFD:

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B7urbxbv8yPDZTM5MzIzZjgtMzRmZC00NzhjLThhNzgtYTA1YzJmMTQwN2Vj&hl=en

January 6, 2010 CDT, HTP, TAT

This week we went over three different art therapy assessments, each very interesting!
The first assessment is the House Tree Person. This assessment, as all mentioned after (unless otherwise stated) are projective personality tests. This assessment measures aspects of a persons personality, but it can also assess brain damage and neurological functioning!
The next one we talked about was the CDT, which is the Clock Drawing test was also very interesting-and one I had previously heard of at an Art Therapy conference. This one, too can assess brain damage and the like.
The last assessment is the TAT, or Thematic Apperception Test. This assessment uses a series of pictures in which the person being tested is asked questions about.

There was no reading for this week.

Introduction

So, this blog is related to a class I'm taking about Art Therapy Assessments. As I cannot put the assessments up here, when applicable I will give a brief description of them, and then add my thoughts and comments. I will also be going over articles for the class, again with my thoughts and comments. Enjoy!