The psychopathology of everyday art: a quantitative Study - World ...

and the test used terminology which would be familiar to them. 1 rater was dropped
during training because his responses were inappropriate to the task. Raters received 2
hours training with the rating guide used in the main study (Version 3, shown in Chapter
3). This was in the form of a workshop, which took them through the guide, included
explanations, examples of terms and the rating of one training painting before using the
scale.
Picture Selection: 25 paintings were selected by the author from paintings rated some
months previously as part of a study with large numbers of other such work. The
paintings showed a range of different subjects and treatment of media. They were each
by different long term psychiatric inpatients from a local mental hospital, or by staff
from the same facility. Each rater on arrival selected one painting from the study pool
and these paintings were used for the study (ratings made by the author for the selected
paintings were retrieved at the analysis stage for the comparison and were not available
at the time).
Method
Raters were given the opportunity to discuss the categories with the author in training
as indicated. They all rated the same training picture at the end of the training session to
iron out any inconsistencies and misunderstandings, and then individually rated seven
pictures, in series, in different orders, referring to the rating guide and helpsheet provided
by the author. They worked by themselves at separate desks so that they could not
discuss their ratings, they changed over pictures with the next person until they had
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