Gender, anxiety, and human figure drawings

Male and female human figure drawings (HFDs) produced by 340 males and females, from ages 9 yrs. 7 mos. to 22 yrs. 4 mos., and deriving from a normal population, were scored for anxiety related to aggression-hostility (A-H) and insecurity-lability (I-L). In general, male subjects evidenced more anxiety about A-H than females; additionally, both male and female subjects drew male figures with more A-H anxiety indices than female figures. The results are interpreted in terms of the impact of sex-role socialization. Further, the utility of obtaining HFDs of both sexes in personality assessment is noted.