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

Measurement form: The most frequent forms measured from the patient were observed
details (35%), the next was a mix of details and content (25%) closely followed by
content measures of subject/theme (22%) and behaviour (12%).
Results: (see notes, Table 7). According to this analysis of 51 studies, 72.5% (n=37) of
studies report differences between the experimental group and controls, either between
patient/non patient (41%, n=21), subgroups (23% n=12) or therapy groups (7.8%, n=4)
(these claims will be further investigated in Chapter Three, within the tightly controlled
comparison criteria of meta analysis).
Summary: The typical test compared a drawing done in standardised conditions by
about 30 adult schizophrenics of both sexes, and an unmatched control group of people
without psychiatric history. The test would be designed for the study, be rated by the
author, and would not be compared with any other measure except the diagnosis.
Patients' pictures would be expected to differ from non-patients by both content,
typically subject or theme decisions; and objective detail, such as particular colours and
positioning of figures.
Interactive effects for study variables by level of Result (shown in Tables 2 and 7).
Demographics: Most studies employed mixed sex experimental groups, adult subjects
and 2 conditions (normal controls). Sex and age were often only reported as a range or
categorically, i.e. adult. Differences between patients and controls were found in all of
the older groups (Table 2), but this may reflect differences in expectations, measurement
99