THE DRAWING OF A HOUSE - CONSTRUCTION OF A DEVELOPMENTAL SCALE

The present study aims to construct a genetic developmental scale conc erning the drawing of a house. Constructed on the basis of 396 drawing s produced by 198 children, this scale makes use of a marking system s imilar to Goodenough's scale for the drawing of a man. In order to be sensitive to genetic influences, the scale takes into account only tho se details whose presence increases as a function of the Z of the chil d (ignoring those which do not vary in frequency, and those which are extremely rare). An easy-to-use 21-point scale was constructed. The va lidity and accuracy of the marking scale were evaluated by comparing t hem with those of Goodenough's man drawings. using 227 subjects aged f rom 2;11 from 11;8 years, each producing three drawings of a man and t hree drawings of a house. Compared with the marking scale of the man d rawing, the scale proposed here shows great genetic sensitivity. As wi th man-drawing, house-drawing evolves with age, and may constitute an index of the degree of cognitive development of the child.