Goodenough Harris Drawing Test

The Goodenough Harris Drawing Test, published by Psychological Corporation, is a nonverbal test of mental ability that is appropriate as either a group or an individual test. The test takes 10 to 15 minutes to administer to children ages 3 to 15. The directions given to the children are simple: “Make a picture of a man; make the very best picture you can.” The current version of the test is essentially the 1963 revision of the original Draw a Man Test.

The purpose of constructing the Goodenough Harris Drawing Test was to substitute the concept of intelligence with the notion of intellectual maturity or, more accurately, conceptual maturity. Thus, intellectual maturity means the ability to form concepts of an abstract character. This encompasses (a) the ability to perceive (i.e., to distinguish between likenesses and differences), (b) the ability to abstract (i.e., to put into groups objects according to likenesses and differences), and (c) the ability to generalize (i.e., to assign newly experienced objects to the correct class). Therefore, evaluation of children's drawings of the human figure helps to measure the complexity of the child's concept formation. The human figure is employed because it is the most familiar and significant figure for the children.

The evaluation of children's drawings is carried out by two different scoring procedures, the Point Scale and the 12-Point Quality Scale. According to the first procedure, each item is rated as pass or fail (1 point or 0), which is based on the presence or absence of a body part or a specific detail (e.g., eyes are present). The Draw a Man Test has 73 items and the Draw a Woman Test 71 items. The scorable items of both drawings are chosen on the basis of (a) age differentiation, (b) relationship to tests of general intelligence, and (c) diversification of children of lower to higher intellectual ability. The score (marking) on the Goodenough Harris Drawing Test is a single one. A detailed scoring guide is offered in the test manual. The second procedure relies on a 12-Point Quality Scale in which 1 indicates the lowest category and 12 the highest.

Norms for both the Point Scale and the 12-Point Quality Scale are provided. The psychometric properties are good, although the test is better employed for children ages 5–15. The test is simple to administer, is enjoyed by the children, and measures general intelligence. However, its cross-cultural use is questionable. The test works well with younger children, especially those of lower intellectual abilities, language handicapped, minority, and bilingual children.