MESTRINER, Sonia M.M.E. (1982) – O Procedimento de Desenhos-Estórias em pacientes esquizofrênicos hospitalizados [The Drawing-and-Story Procedure in schizophrenic inpatients]. Master’s Dissertation. São Paulo (SP), Instituto de Psicologia da USP, 222 pp.
The present investigation is a study of the simultaneous validity of Drawing-Story Procedure (D-E) using psychiatric diagnosis as a criterion. The objective was to determine whether the D-E differentiates hospitalized schizophrenic subjects from “normal” subjects, and, if so, to extend its use to adults, since thus far, the D-E has been used only for children and adolescents. Eighty adult male subjects of low socioeconomic status (as determined by their professional level and cultural completion of elementary school at most) were utilized. Forty of these were schizophrenic patients hospitalized for 3 months or more in 2 hospitals of two cities in the interior of the State of São Paulo, made up Group I, and the remaining forty subjects were elementary school students of the town of Ribeirão Preto (Group II). The two groups were matched for age range and intellectual level. Only subjects who had scored 10 points or more in the RAVEN Progressive Matrix Test (General Scale), were utilized.
The 80 D-E protocols were classified by three different evaluators, all psychologists with ample professional experience, who had been informed only about the sex, age and intellectual level of each subject, and about the fact that they were all of low socioeconomic and cultural level. Each evaluator classified each protocol according to five alternatives: E1 (schizophrenic, with little conviction), E2 (schizophrenic, with conviction), N1 (normal, with little conviction), N2 (normal, with conviction), and NS (I don’t know). The evaluators agreed on the five alternatives at a level of 0.02 of significance in the coefficient of concordance of Kendall. To compare the D-E with psychiatric diagnosis, the frequencies of the judgement of the D-E to the N categories (including N1 + N2) and E (including E1 E2) categories were correlated to the frequencies of psychiatric diagnosis in the N and E categories using the KENDALL Coefficient of Concordance for each evaluator. The NS assignments were not considered.
The NS judgements done by evaluators 1 and 2 were treated by the Chi Square one-sample test and by the binomial test, respectively. Evaluator 3 made no NS judgments. The alternative hypothesis that evaluation of the D-E is dependent on or correlated to the psychiatric diagnosis at the 0.01 level of significance was accepted for the 3 evaluators. The contingency coefficients obtained were C = 0.62, C = 0.65 and C = 0.65 for evaluators 1, 2 and 3, respectively, and those were found to be very close to the upper limit of the coefficient (C = 0,71). The hypothesis of the non-validity of the proportion of NS judgements was the same for the psychiatric diagnosis of E and that of N and they were accepted at the 0.01 level of significance for both evaluators 1 and 2. Thus, experienced professionals were able to discriminate, with high possibility of success, between hospitalized patients and “normal” subjects, all of them adults, males and of low socioeconomic and cultural level. Some characteristics of the D-E of schizophrenic patients, compared to those of “normal” individuals, were pointed out by those who applied the and those who evaluated it. The Thematic Drawing-and-Story Procedure as a form of Psychological Interview was also discussed. Publ. in Estudos de Psicologia, Campinas (SP), 3 (1/2): 106-111, 1986.