Validity of Projective Drawing Indices of Male Homosexuality

Abstract

We investigated the hypothesis that certain signs in the Draw-A-Person projective technique reflect male homosexuality. Human figure drawings from 88 gay and 88 heterosexual men, with no clinical psychological symptoms, were submitted to trained raters who were blind to the purpose of this research. The raters independently judged whether 21 signs, previously referenced in the literature as suggestive of male homosexuality, were present in the figure drawings. Only two signs, hair and hips, differentiated between groups. Results were interpreted in the light of changing social attitudes towards homosexuals and methodological problems of prior studies.