MORENO, Neyde M.M. (1985) – Estudo da personalidade de pacientes com deficiência mental leve através do Procedimento de Desenhos-Estórias. [Study of slightly mentally retarded patients´ personality through the Drawing-and-Story Procedure]. Master’s Dissertation. São Bernardo do Campo (SP), Instituto de Metodista de Ensino Superior, 213 pp.
The present study tested the Drawing-and-Story Procedure (D-E) checking its validity for diagnostics of mental deficient subjects, comparing them to “normal ones” matched for chronological age and for mental age. Fifty-nine subjects took part, children and teenagers of both sexes, of a low social-economical and cultural level. Nineteen were mild mental handicapped subjects (from 11 to 15 years) and constituted the MD Group; twenty subjects that were non-mental deficient (from 11 to 15 years) , who belonged to the NMD I Group; and in the third Group – NMD II – there were twenty non-mentally deficient subjects ( from 7 to 9 years ). The MD subjects presented I.Q between 50 and 70, by WISC. The criterion of non-mental deficiency used was the scholar one. After the application of D-E, the 59 protocols were classified “blindfold” by three judges (two psychologists and one psychiatrist), informed only about the sex and the low social-economical and cultural level. Each judge classified the 59 protocols in seven alternatives: DM0 (mental deficient from 11 to 15 years with conviction); DM1 (mental deficient from 11 to 15 years without conviction); NDM2 (non-mental deficient from 11 to 15 years with conviction); NDM3 (non-mental deficient from 11 to 15 years without conviction); NDM4 (non-mental deficient from 7 to 9 years with conviction); NDM5 (non-mental deficient from 7 to 9 years without conviction); NS (don’t know). The results were analyzed as to: a) degree of concordance among the judges (ties; Kendall-W); b) comparison of D-E with the clinical diagnostic (% in accordance; index of reliability; accuracy ; ties; coefficient of contingency; Fisher’s test; and analysis of errors); c) main features of the drawings: duration; number of drawings; resistance, elaboration, utilization of colors, relative size, localization of paper sheet, position of paper, pressure of drawing line, contents of drawings, perseverance; reactions while drawing and others that didn’t fit in the categories above; d) main features of the stories: refusals and difficulties of verbalization, sequences, concreteness, feelings, deliriums, themes; e) relation between stories and drawings; and f) titles. It was concluded that the Drawing-and-Story Procedure: a) is valid with mild mental deficient teenagers, mainly if considered the experience of the professional with the mental deficient and with the D-E; b) provides enough features in order to differentiate mental deficient from the other two groups; c) makes possible the analysis of the main psychological dynamism of the mild mental deficient teenager. Future studies are suggested, comparing the validity of Drawing-and-Story Procedure for the differentiated diagnosis of the mental deficiency with other psychopathologies, mainly childhood psychosis.