Date of Award

Spring 8-1-1989

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Michael J. Murphy

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of two personality tests, the human figure drawing (HFD) and Adolescent Multiphasic Personality Inventory (AMPI), in differentiating adolescent sex offenders from juvenile delinquents without a known sexual offense or victimization history. Subjects (ages 13-17) provided responses to a Structured Clinical Interview (SCI} (adapted from Becker, 1986), completed HFDs of both sexes, and completed the AMPI (Duthie, 1985). Pearson product moment correlation coefficients on each psychodiagnostic characteristic on the HFD rating scale were obtained between pairs of three independent raters. Reliable HFD psychodiagnostic indicators were subjected to a 2 x 2 (status x sex of interviewer) analysis of variance. Only large pointed fingers on the female human figure drawings of juvenile delinquents statistically differentiated juvenile delinquents from sex offenders. There were no statistically significant differences on human figure drawings related to the sex of the interviewer, although there was a trend for sex offenders to produce female human figure drawings with the highest overall quality rating when in the presence of a female interviewer. The SCI provided descriptive statistics for each group of subjects on a variety of demographic variables. There were no statistically or clinically significant differences between groups on the AMPI. Explanations for obtained results were explored and recommendations for future research were offered.

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