The Silver Drawing Test and Draw a Story: Assessing Depression, Aggression, and Cognitive Skills

320 Pages·2007·9.31 MB·English

by  Rawley Silver

The Silver Drawing Test
and Draw a Story
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The Silver Drawing Test
and Draw a Story
Assessing Depression, Aggression, and Cognitive Skills
RAWLEY SILVER,
EdD, ATR-BC, HLM
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Routledge Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group Taylor & Francis Group
270 Madison Avenue 2 Park Square
New York, NY 10016 Milton Park, Abingdon
Oxon OX14 4RN
© 2007 by Rawley Silver
Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
Printed in the United States of America on acid‑free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
International Standard Book Number‑10: 0‑415‑95534‑3 (Softcover)
International Standard Book Number‑13: 978‑0‑415‑95534‑8 (Softcover)
No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission
from the publishers.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation with‑
out intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data
Silver, Rawley A.
The Silver drawing test and draw a story : assessing depression, aggression, and cognitive skills / Rawley Silver.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0‑415‑95534‑3 (pb)
1. Psychological tests for children. 2. Draw‑A‑Story. 3. Depression in children‑‑Diagnosis. 4. Aggressiveness in children‑‑Diagnosis.
5. Cognition‑‑Testing. I. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Psychological Tests. 2. Depressive Disorder‑‑diagnosis. 3. Aggression. 4. Cognition. 5. Risk Assessment. 6. Child.
WS 105.5.E8 S587s 2007]
RJ503.7.P76S55 2007
618.92’891653‑‑dc22 2006028342
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at
http://www.taylorandfrancis.com
and the Routledge Web site at
http://www.routledgementalhealth.com
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For Ed, with love
The words or the language, as they are written or spoken, do not seem
to play any role in my mechanism of thought. The psychical entities
which seem to serve as elements in thought are . . . in my case, the
visual and some of the muscular type. Conventional words or other
signs have to be sought for laboriously only in the second stage.
—Albert Einstein
The scientific search for truth and the human search
for understanding belong together.
—Jacob Bronowski
          
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Contents
♢ ♢ ♢
List of Figures xiii
Foreword xvii
Acknowledgments xix
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
Why the Assessments Were Developed and How They Evolved 2
Theoretical Background 3
Quantitative and Qualitative Findings 5
How the Book Is Organized 6
Section i   Draw a Story: Screening for DepreSSion anD aggreSSion
Chapter 2 Background 9
Why DAS Was Developed and How It Evolved 9
Administering the DAS Assessment and Scoring Responses 12
Examples of Scored Responses to the DAS Task 20
          ii
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Contents
Chapter 3 Reliability, Validity, and Depression 31
Diagnostic Criteria 31
The Scale for Assessing Emotional Content 32
The Scale for Assessing Self-Image 34
Identifying Self-Images without Meeting the Adolescents Who Drew Them 35
The Validity and Reliability of the Emotional Content and Self-Image Scales 39
The Scale for Assessing the Use of Humor 40
Studies of Depression 40
The Self-Report and Masked Depression 43
Chapter 4 Aggression and Depression 45
Comparing Aggressive and Nonaggressive Groups 45
Results 47
Questions and Implications 47
Predatory Aggression, Humorous Responses, and Reactive Aggression 48
Humorous Responses 50
Reactive Aggression 50
Masked Depression and Gender Differences 50
Male Responses 53
Female Responses 53
Additional Findings and Observations 55
Chapter 5 Using Draw a Story with Clinical and Nonclinical Populations 57
Adolescents with and without Emotional Disturbances 57
Age and Gender Differences in Attitudes toward Self and Others 59
Sex Differences in the Solitary and Assaultive Fantasies of Delinquent and
Nondelinquent Adolescents 60
Ellison’s Use of DAS with Delinquent Adolescents 63
Turner’s Use of DAS with Adolescents Who Experienced Abuse 63
Wilson’s Use of DAS with Patients Who Had Brain Injuries 64
Dunn-Snow’s Use of DAS with Emotionally Disturbed Children and Adolescents 64
Coffey’s Use of DAS in a Psychiatric Hospital 65
Brandt’s Use of DAS with Adolescents—Sex Offenders, the Depressed,
and the Typical 65
iii          
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Contents 
Section ii  the Silver Drawing teSt: Drawing what you 
preDict, what you See, anD what you imagine
Chapter 6 Why and How the Silver Drawing Test Was Developed and Field Tested 69
The SDT Tasks: Drawing from Imagination, Predictive Drawing, and Drawing
from Observation 70
Predictive Drawing 73
Drawing from Observation 75
Children, Adolescents, and Adults with Disabilities 76
A Demonstration Project for Children and Adults with Hearing Impairments 76
Two Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibitions 77
The State Urban Education Project 78
Children with Visual Motor Disorders 83
National Institute of Education Project for Children Performing below Grade
Level 85
Discussion 86
Chapter 7 Administering and Scoring the Silver Drawing Test 89
The Predictive Drawing Task 90
Examples of Scored Responses to the Predictive Drawing Task 93
The Drawing from Observation Task 100
Examples of Scored Responses to the Drawing from Observation Task 103
The Drawing from Imagination Task 107
Examples of Scored Responses to the Drawing from Imagination Task 112
Chapter 8 The Reliability and Validity of the Silver Drawing Test 125
Interscorer Reliability 125
Retest Reliability 128
Correlations between the Silver Drawing Test and Traditional Tests of Creativity
and Achievement 130
Concluding Remarks 139
Chapter 9 Normative Data 141
Scores for Assessing Emotions and Cognitive Skills 142
Emotional Content, Self-Image, and the Use of Humor 142
Mean Scores and Gender Frequencies 143
          ix
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