Florence L. Goodenough Draw-a-Man Theory

1. Florence L. GoodenoughDraw-a-Man Theory By: Lindsey Underhill

2. Florence L. Goodenough Born in Honesdale, Pennsylvania on August 6, 1886 to farmer parents. She was the youngest of 9 children. She retired early because of a physical illness. She died of a stroke on April 4, 1959.

3. Goodenough’s Education • She as homeschooled as a young girl. • 1908 – Bachelor of Pedagogy: Millersville, Pennsylvania Normal School • 1920 – Bachelor of Science: Columbia University • 1921 – Master of Arts with LetaHollingworth: Columbia University • 1924 – Doctor of Psychology: Stanford University

4. Beginning of work • Taught at the University of Minnesota where she worked with special classes in public schools. • She went on to work for the Institute of Child Welfare. • Her traditional avenues of research included the study of differences in race, gender, development of self awareness, sleep patterns, and posture. • She is best known for the Draw-a-Man Test.

5. Draw-a-Man Test “The nature and content of children’s drawings are dependent primarily upon intellectual development.” - Florence L. Goodenough • Drawing tests have been used throughout the centuries to understand the cognitive (intellectual) development of children. • Drawing for children is a form of expression rather than a representation of beauty. • It is believed that a child draws what he knows, not what he sees. • This causes the child to exaggerate the size of objects which seem interesting or important to him/her. • By looking at children’s drawings, we are not only able to understand their development, but also to detect personality differences, loss of senses, and also to understand a child’s learning differences.

6. Goodenough’sDraw-a-Man Test • Goodenough took the traditional drawing test and modified it. • She also created a scale to score the drawings. • Her most important contribution was that of a change in subject matter of the drawing.

7. Why a man? • All children are familiar with with the figure of a man. • There is consistency in the basis of how a man should look. • It is simple and complicated at the same time so it can accommodate both young and older children. • It is a universal interest.

8. Goodenough’s Theory • Goodenough believed that through the drawing of a man, one could determine the cognitive development of a child as it increases with age. • However, Goodenough did not believe that artistic ability was needed to score high; it was purely intellectual. • She believed that a child scores high on the test not because of talent, but because of a good memory for details, and a keen power for analytic observation.

9. My Research Study The purpose of this research study is to investigate whether there is a correlation between a child’s mental maturity (intelligence) – as determined using Florence Goodenough’s Draw-a-Man Test – and that child’s artistic ability as evaluated by a young artist (UD art major). According to Goodenough, there is no connection between the two.

10. Questions for my research: • What is the mental maturity of the child as measured using Florence Goodenough’s Draw-A-Man test? • Are the drawings of children judged by the young artist to reveal more artistic ability likely to have higher mental maturity scores on the Draw-A-Man test? Similarly, are those drawings that reveal less artistic talent likely to correlate with lower scores on the Draw-A-Man test.

11. My hypothesis Although the Draw-a-Man test may work as a tool for understanding a child’s cognitive development, it also can be used to see an early artistic talent within children. I believe that those with higher scores on the Goodenough Draw-a-Man test will also be scored higher in artistic ability using a scale created by a young art major at the University of Dallas.

12. I went out to Holy Family Catholic School and worked with boys and girls in Kindergarten, 2nd grade, and 5th grade. I asked them to draw a man to the best of their ability. Here are the results:

13. Scoring Artistic Scale The child gets a point for each element of the scale. The scale includes elements such as proportion, firmness of lines, correctness of the man itself, and much more. The collection of all of these points is called the raw score. The child gets a point for each of the following elements: Composition Varying line Proportion Creativity Texture Value Space Balance Goodenough Scale

14. Discussion of Pictures

15. MariaAge: 4Raw Score: 25Artistic Score: 5 Natalia Age: 4 Raw Score: 25 Artistic Score: 4

16. Matthew Age: 7 Raw Score: 11 Artistic score: 2

17. Sami Age: 7 Raw Score: 29 Artistic Score: 8

18. Gabriel Age: 10 Raw Score: 29 Artistic Score: 5

19. Kevin Age: 10 Raw Score: 8 Artistic Score: 3 Serra Age: 10 Raw Score: 33 Artistic Score: 4

20. Kindergarten results

21. Second Grade results

22. 5th Grade results

23. Gender Differences The girls generally scored higher than the boys with an average score of 27.5 while the boys had an average of 17. The girls through all ages also tended to take a longer time. There were a few outliers to this rule in which a boy scored higher than most girls in his grade, however this was rare.

24. My Conclusion • My hypothesis is wrong. • Although those with higher raw scores did tend to have a higher artistic score, this was not at all uniform throughout. • When I compared the raw scores with the artistic scores, they were all scattered. • In conclusion: The cognitive development scores of the Draw-a-Man test do not correlate with artistic ability scores. To get a high score on the test, one does not necessarily need high artistic talent, just the ability to relay back through a drawing all that they see in detail.

25. What I would change… • have children do it in an isolated area • emphasize more that I need them to draw just a man • remember to take down their actual ages to the month