Key to the test, interpretation:
First position
In the first position of the test, the characteristics of the individual’s orientation in the environment are revealed and, in particular, the extent to which he takes into account the elements of the world around him in his behavior (this means not only external activity, but also internal, psychological, i.e. behavior in in a broad sense). You need to know this when studying, for example, the personality of a violent criminal or a person who has committed a careless offense. The data obtained can also be used for criminological forecasting. When interpreting a drawing in the first position, one must proceed from the fact that it represents a model of space, and the point in it is an element of this space. The following main options for interpreting the first position are possible.
The subject may, for example, not notice the point and draw something that is in no way related to it.
In another case, he notices a dot, but does not use it in his drawing.
In the third option, the dot is used in the drawing, but as an absolutely independent element.
In the fourth, it is used directly in the drawing, but does not carry a central semantic load.
In the fifth - as the semantic center of the drawing.
If the point is the semantic center of the picture (the core of a flower, the center of a target, the sun, etc.), then this means that a person strives to take into account the elements of the environment to the maximum extent. He actively strives for complete orientation, passing the world around him through his ideas and concepts. As the semantic central load of a point decreases, the nature of the orientation also changes. The pattern has the opposite meaning when the subject does not even notice the dot, which is very common among violent criminals. This is a direct analogue of the corresponding behavior in reality. Such a person often does not notice what surrounds him, does not take into account many elements of the environment in his behavior, his behavior can proceed as if outside the situation. Naturally, all other options occupy intermediate places in their meaning and should be interpreted based on the proposed bipolar semantic scale of orientation.
The subject can also turn the point into the central semantic element of the drawing, but take a passive position in relation to it (for example, draw a person looking at it through a telescope). This type of pattern is often found in people with psychasthenic character traits. They carefully strive to take into account every element of the surrounding world, but are extremely indecisive and anxious, do not believe in their own strength, which leads to a detailed, but purely contemplative and passive orientation. In another version, the subject can, as it were, “disguise” the point (for example, draw a mass of snowflakes, raindrops, stars, etc. in the form of points). Such drawings are usually found in people who strive to obtain the most complete information about the environment, exaggerating its significance. For them there is no unnecessary information, “little things”, so they collect any information about others. They carefully analyze, accumulate and use this information in social interaction.
Second position
In the second position of the test, the presence of aggressive tendencies in a person is revealed, which is very important for criminological research. In people's minds, the crocodile is usually associated with such a trait as aggression. Therefore, his drawing is a projection of aggressive character traits, attitudes, rancor, and suspicion. When analyzing the picture, you need to pay attention to the presence of direct symbols of aggression: open mouth, teeth, claws, aggressive pose (especially significant when a crocodile is eating something or someone). The presence of aggression will also be indicated by the pointed elements of the drawing and the large size of the drawn crocodile. The careful drawing of the crocodile, in comparison with other drawings, also indicates the presence of actual aggression. The eyes in this drawing have an informative value and their outline indicates increased susceptibility, suspicion in the search for manifestations of aggression on the part of others.
The tail symbolizes the presence of such a trait as rancor. The more it is expressed in the drawing, the stronger this trait is manifested. Sometimes there are drawings in which the crocodile seems to be camouflaged (swimming in the water, hiding in the thickets, etc.), which indicates the presence of latent aggression. This usually occurs when, for one reason or another, it cannot be openly implemented. The following variant of the drawing is also possible: the crocodile is drawn as extremely aggressive (open mouth, many teeth, etc.), and in the verbal description the subject describes it as kind, gentle and lazy. This occurs among people who declare their friendly attitude towards others, hiding the presence of aggression. This is the impression sometimes given by those convicted of violent crimes. For many violent criminals, the crocodile pattern may not have direct symbols of aggression, which, obviously, can be interpreted as their lack of actual aggression as a personality trait. True, such persons in crocodile drawings have carefully drawn eyes (wide open and blackened), which may indicate the presence of such a trait as excessive sensitivity in the sphere of interpersonal relationships.
Third position
In the third position of the test, the characteristics of a person’s behavior in a social group and the extent to which he adheres to conventional norms are revealed. Undoubtedly, such information is important for predicting the behavior of a convict in a correctional institution.
If the drawing of an elephant goes beyond the rectangle, as if breaking it, then this usually indicates a tendency to violate established norms. This is explained by the fact that the rectangle itself is a limitation symbolizing the effect of these norms. Naturally, neglect of this limitation, despite the instructions, which is also a model of the imperative action of norms, indicates the inability or unwillingness of a person to adhere to normative instructions in his behavior. The study of criminals using the APT technique suggested that this position reveals a tendency to violate not any specific types of norms (legal, moral, etc.), but rather a psychological intolerance to any external restrictions on behavior, formal and informal. Most often, the drawing of an elephant goes beyond the rectangle for convicts who, while in prison, are malicious and active violators of the detention regime.
Since most people imagine an elephant as an animal not solitary, but living in a group, the author of the test chose it as a stimulus material for indirectly identifying behavioral characteristics of a person in a group. In addition, it is also important that for Europeans an elephant is a fairly neutral concept that does not evoke personal emotions or associations associated with past experience of interaction, unlike, for example, a horse, a cow and other herd animals. Thus, the drawing of an elephant is a direct analogue of human behavior in a group. Aggressive behavior in a group manifests itself in cases where the elephant’s tusks are drawn and the elephant is in a threatening pose.
The meaning of such a detail as ears is a direct interest in information, the importance of the opinions of others about oneself. People who have a particularly pronounced trait draw an elephant with its ears raised, as if the elephant is listening. Other details determine whether the subject is taking any actions to gain the recognition of others. A raised trunk is a desire to attract those around you, to be the center of attention. Eyes - interpreted in the same way as in the crocodile drawing. Eyelashes are a sign of the presence of hysteroid-demonstrative traits (if they occur in men, they indicate the presence of “feminine” behavior patterns). The tail symbolizes the attitude towards oneself, one’s own actions, self-esteem. A raised tail is a positive assessment of oneself, one’s actions in the group, a lowered tail is dissatisfaction with oneself, one’s social actions, and position in the group.
The location of the elephant in the rectangle is of great informative value. If the drawing occupies the entire rectangle, the elephant seems to be “cramped” in it, this indicates a desire for dominance in the group. Small size of the picture - lack of tendency to dominate, underestimation of one's social status. More often the elephant is depicted from the side, but there are also other options: it is drawn from the front or from behind. The side view does not have much informative load. The image of him from the front is interpreted as egocentrism in social interactions, the image from behind is a disdainful attitude towards the social group. Sometimes this may be a defensive reaction or reflect a reaction of withdrawing from social contacts.
Of particular interest are drawings when an elephant is depicted within the boundaries of a rectangle, but a painting, photograph, lithograph, etc. is made from the rectangle itself. Such drawings are more often found among people who perceive the social environment (or their group) as something unchanging, frozen, familiar. During social interaction, they are passive and do not strive to change their socio-psychological position, while their behavior is stereotypical, it consists of the same forms. Quite often, such drawings are also found in people who are not accepted by the social group, or they themselves usually, not entirely justifiably, believe that the group does not accept them. But in any case, the behavior of such persons will consist of certain social cliches, which are defensive reactions. Most typically, such behavior is observed in schizoid individuals who strive for psychological isolation from the social environment. This behavior is typical of many convicts who are poorly adapted to the conditions of detention in correctional institutions. Their behavior in the group is devoid of naturalness, they are closed and try to avoid any obligations and responsibilities. Convicts serving sentences in penal colonies often draw an elephant as if behind bars, thereby reflecting in their drawings the impossibility of desired social behavior, problems of separation from their usual environment, and social isolation.
Fourth position
The fourth position of the test is intended to identify the characteristics of communication. People who adhere to formalized and regulated communication usually put their signature not in the center of the rectangle. If the signature is located at the top of the rectangle, then this is interpreted as a desire to emphasize one’s social and sometimes socio-psychological status. The signature made at the bottom is found among people who strictly adhere to social-role communication. Sociable people who easily establish contacts put their signature in the middle of the rectangle. The presence of the initial letters of the name and patronymic in the signature indicates a pronounced tendency towards self-affirmation. An excessive increase in the length of the signature compared to the number of letters making up the surname has a similar meaning and is found in people suffering from a lack of social recognition. For example, in persons who committed crimes motivated by overcoming distance with the reference group. The signature can also serve as a subject for graphological analysis of handwriting.
Fifth position
In the fifth position of the test, the features of subjective perception and assessment of reality are revealed. Since the fifth position contains a real contradiction (moon and sun), the drawing in it differs in the model of a person’s subjective attitude to the ambiguity of life situations. There are several basic options for this type of relationship. There are people whose perception is completely determined by polar assessments (good - bad, kind - evil, light - dark, etc.), and such a division is also present in their drawings, this is especially common among criminals who have committed murder. They, for example, usually draw a line dividing the space of the fifth position in half, according to the day-night principle or similar. The opposite type of assessment and attitude to the situation is found among people who strive to combine or reconcile this contradiction in their drawings. For example, they depict the state of nature that occurs in the evening or early morning, when you can see both the sun and the moon in the sky at the same time. Such people have a flexible system of assessments, strive to unambiguously define the situation (good - bad), they are not embarrassed by the existing contradiction and they perceive life as it exists in reality, regardless of their subjective attitude.
In this position there are also drawings that are in no way related to the stimulus material, i.e. the original contradiction seems to go unnoticed. Such a pattern, as our research has shown, occurs in people with an unformed approach to reality, who are passive and do not strive to understand and comprehend what is happening around them.
Egocentrism, assessment and analysis of reality only from the standpoint of one’s own needs and desires is manifested in the drawing in the form of a subjective combination of the original stimulus material. For example, a house is drawn in which, from morning to evening, some events take place or one’s own pastime is drawn (for example, “in the afternoon I sunbathe under the sun”, “in the evening I go on a date”).
When analyzing drawings in the fifth position, it is also necessary to take into account that the personal problems of the subject, his desires and aspirations can be projected into them. In this case, the interpretation, in addition to the main meaning of the position (the approach to assessing reality), can also reveal the presence of a specific current situation, its subjective meaning for the subject.
Sixth position
The sixth position of the test is aimed at identifying the current personal situation of the subject in the sphere of relationships with persons of the opposite sex. It is clear that information of this kind is important for understanding sexual crimes or other violent acts with sexual overtones. In this position, the original stimulus material expresses, as it were, two opposing elements: maximum stability (land, shore) and maximum instability (water, sea, river). Therefore, water symbolizes, as a rule, the emotional and sensual aspect of relationships, constantly changing over time and in degree of intensity, and the shore personifies stability, certainty, and limitations, which can be conditionally correlated with the stability of family relationships. As a stimulus material, a tree growing on the shore is aimed at identifying the presence of tendencies in everyday relationships. These conditional values are the starting point for interpreting the drawings in the sixth position. But of particular importance here is the description of the drawing by the subject. As our experience has shown, the drawings of this position, especially their descriptions, really reflect the problems and characteristics of relationships with people of the opposite sex. Below is an interpretation of the most common elements of the pattern.
Sometimes the subject perceives the image of water as solid soil (field, sand, arable land). This is usually due to the lack of emotional and sensory experience of relationships or extreme dissatisfaction with them. The image of birds, especially seagulls flying over the waves, has the meaning of hopes, dreams, etc. A ship, boat, sailboat suggests the presence of an urgent problem, which is solved in one way or another depending on the direction of the ship’s movement. If the ship is moving towards the shore, then this means a desire for maximum stability in relations; if it is moving away from the shore, then this has the opposite meaning. Obviously, the ship acquires such importance because it is the only means of transportation in such an unstable element as water. And therefore, if there is a need to change the emotional-sensual aspect of the relationship (toward stability or, conversely, instability and instability, as well as in the case of unfulfilled aspirations in this area), then in the drawing this can be conveyed using a ship or some other vessel, since the initial stimulus material is water. In the absence of problems and difficulties in the emotional-sensual aspect of the relationship, the subject has a need to change his personal situation. The ship or any other floating vessels are not drawn and the current situation is fully conveyed in the description of the drawing.
Such additional details of the picture as foliage on a tree, bushes on the shore, etc. found among people who attach great importance to the everyday organization of personal relationships. The intensity of drives in the sphere of relationships with the opposite sex in men, for example, is evidenced by drawings with aggressive manifestations (an airplane diving at a target, a pirate or warship, etc.). It is significant that such drawings are most often found in people who have been isolated from society for a long time. A drawing of a person in this position is of great informative value. When describing, the subject often endows him with his own problems, traits and desires.
Seventh position
The seventh position of the test reveals the characteristics of a person’s behavior in an unstable conflict situation, which, like previous data, is of great criminological and penitentiary significance. The tilted figure, which is the stimulus material here, already by virtue of its spatial position symbolizes instability. The following behaviors may appear in the drawings. People who choose an aggressive path to resolve unstable situations, who go into conflict, mistake the tilted figure for a Christmas tree and draw a person cutting it down or chopping it. But in this case, a person’s conflict is most often limited to the sphere of everyday relationships. For example, in our study, this type of pattern was found among persons who committed a violent crime on domestic grounds.
If a person is conflicted and aggressive in both the domestic and social spheres, then this is manifested in the drawings as follows: several similar inclined figures are drawn, one of which is supported by a similar inclined figure. Such drawings can be interpreted as a desire to resolve the conflict by exacerbating it. The opposite meaning is given to drawings of faces that try in any way to stabilize the instability of the figure. For example, they can draw a support or a person supporting the figure, draw a root system, etc. People who show a desire for a rational resolution of an unstable situation usually draw straight figures or trees next to the tilted figure, thereby, as if showing an example of what should be for real. Sometimes a tilted figure is made, for example, into a rocket or a flock of cranes flying into the sky, which is usually found among people who try to psychologically neutralize any unstable situation by displacing it from their consciousness. An extremely passive attitude towards an unstable situation is evidenced by drawings like: “mushrooms under the Christmas tree,” etc. Sometimes such drawings are found in infantile individuals who are not capable of perceiving the situation as unstable or conflicting for themselves.
There are also drawings where the stabilization of a tilted figure is carried out by someone putting it on their shoulders (“Santa Claus is carrying a Christmas tree”) or carrying it in his hands or in another way. Such drawings are typical of people who, without actively trying to resolve a conflict situation, become involved in it as much as possible, hoping to neutralize it in this way (literally “pulling the conflict on their shoulders”). Sometimes the drawings show paradoxical and unusual reactions to an unstable situation. For example, a tilted figure turns into a Christmas tree and is decorated in every possible way, or it is set on fire, or a person is depicted collecting fruits from it. The first version of the picture can be found in people who receive a kind of emotional satisfaction from being in a conflict-unstable situation. In the second option, a person resolves conflict situations by completely exiting them, psychologically destroying the source of the conflict. And in the latter case, the drawing symbolizes the use of a conflicting, unstable situation to obtain certain emotional or material benefits. All these three variants of the pattern are often found among various categories of criminals, especially among selfish and selfishly violent ones, which suggests that the so-called “selfish motive” does not play the main role in the thesis of this type of crime.
Eighth position
In the eighth position, the original test material stimulates the subject to image a person or only his face. The interpretation of this position is based on the fact that the subject creates his own self-portrait in it or projects the most characteristic features of his personality. If a person or a person’s face is drawn, it is necessary to ask the subject to characterize him as fully as possible, talk about this person’s problems, character traits, habits, inclinations, etc. The expression on a person’s face is a characteristic of the subject’s personality type.
As our experience shows, drawings of animals or inanimate objects are often found in this position of the test. Such drawings are also a direct characteristic of the personality of the subject and require careful additional questioning. For example, the following can be drawn: a doll, a snowman, a fairy-tale hero, etc. In all these cases, a correctly constructed survey of the subject will lead to the fact that he will endow the character he has drawn with his own traits and problems. Also, the very nature of the depicted object can be of great informative value. For example, a snowman in the eighth position is most often drawn by people who are soft, passive, and feminine. The dolls depict infantile personalities with an unstable self-image. No matter how paradoxical the drawing may be in this position in terms of characterizing the personality, it must be considered as the subject’s idea of himself, and not necessarily a conscious one. Sometimes there are cases when the subject projects in his drawing only the most pressing personal problem, which becomes clear during the conversation.
We create an associative drawing based on a 3D model
In order to create an associative drawing , do the following: create a drawing→select the button on the compact panel
panel standard views
“View” → below, select “Standard views” → in the window that opens, select a file with a 3 d model (extension .m3d)
select a 3d prism model
→ on the properties panel “scheme” tab , select the number of views and the distance between them → click on the drawing field and that’s it, three projections of a prism or pyramid are ready.
diagram of drawing views
All that remains is to insert isometry and draw up the drawing according to GOST.
To insert isometry, open a file with a 3D model of a prism (pyramid) and resave it as a drawing in .png format.
save the model in picture format
Let's return to creating an associative drawing. In the main menu bar, click on the “Insert” → “Drawing” → in the window that opens, select a drawing with a prism (pyramid) → insert the drawing into the drawing.
insert the picture into the drawing
