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Indications of physical, sexual, and verbal victimization in projective tree drawings
Author(s) -
Torem Moshe S.,
Gilbertson Alan,
Light Vicki
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/1097-4679(199011)46:6<900::aid-jclp2270460633>3.0.co;2-b
Subject(s) - projective test , psychology , tree (set theory) , association (psychology) , clinical psychology , sexual abuse , physical abuse , developmental psychology , poison control , injury prevention , medicine , psychotherapist , medical emergency , psychoanalysis , mathematical analysis , mathematics
Several facets of the Tree‐Scar‐Trauma hypothesis were addressed. The first inquiry was whether scars, knotholes, and/or broken branches on a drawn tree are indicative of previous victimization. A statistically significant relationship between these variables was found. The study also examined differences between mental health patients ( N = 56) and control subjects ( N = 215) with regard to their abuse history and tree drawings. No significant differences between these two populations were found. A modification of Buck's (1948) hypothesis with regard to the relationship between the location of traumatic indicators on projective tree drawings and age of traumatization was tested and not validated. However, the association between the duration of physical abuse and the number of indicators on the tree was statistically significant.