THE GOOD KING-DAGOBERT, OR CLEVER, STUPID, NICE, NASTY

Children aged 8-10 years in 11 primary schools were asked to draw a ve ry clever person, a very stupid person, a very nice person and a very nasty person. The elicited drawings were analysed for content revealin g commonalities and some stereotypes. Cleverness was shown to be gende r-independent. Clever people shown were good at maths, wove glasses, a nd were happy and confident. Stupid people were predominantly male, un happy, bad at maths, anxious, untidy and small in stature. They were s hown as having a negative self-concept. Nice people were mostly female , pretty, smiling and kind. Nasty people were male, aggressive, large, often 'punk' and threatening. It is suggested that the 'stupid' group corresponds to those with learning difficulties and the 'nasty' group to those with behaviour problems. These represent anxiety, threat and disadvantage, whereas the more fortunate are characterised by confide nce, prosperity and happiness. This paper uniquely uses the images gen erated by the children themselves in response to stimulus words. Drawi ngs are independent of verbal report and give children freedom to resp ond creatively. A comprehensive range of drawings illustrate the paper .