Deck 3: How Art Informs Art Therapy Research

Question 1

Describe art therapists' basic method that differentiates their worldview from other artists as well as from other kinds of therapists.

Answer 1

Art therapists use aesthetic-relational tools to help clients take creative action toward a therapeutic concern followed by a process of reflexive critique.

Question 2

What was Kaplan's conclusion about the value of projective drawing assessments?

A) If used in a standardized approach to assessment, they can provide important psychometric indicators of personality and psychopathology.
B) If used for sign-based interpretation they should be discarded because they are not valid; formal elements have greater validity and can be used to construct meaningful rating scales.
C) Although some of the earlier projective drawing assessments were not valid or reliable, those designed by art therapists are effective in determining the meaning of symbols used in drawing.
D) They are not valid for correlating the formal elements of an artwork with improvement in a client's functioning.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

The scientist sees the art work as part of a tangible record of human experience to be analyzed and plausibly explained. How does this compare with the way an artist approaches the artwork?

A) The artist sees the artwork as a record of transformative and highly subjective experience.
B) The artist is interested in making the artwork's message translatable to the greatest number of possible contexts.
C) The scientist is not likely to value the artwork because of a bias toward measuring only what can be observed empirically.
D) The scientist shares the artist's desire to explain and validate the artwork.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

An art therapist is asked by a foundation that provided grant support for her research study to feature the artwork collected as data in a campaign for Mental Health Awareness Month. What ethical principle should guide the art therapist in deciding what to do?

A) Ownership of the artwork: The foundation can use the artwork in its campaign because it paid for it and clients signed a consent form to participate in the study.
B) Obligation to science: The researcher is obligated by service to the public good to disseminate the study's findings and the value of art therapy.
C) Rights of the images: The foundation should not exhibit the artwork because as a corporate sponsor, the rights of the images would not be honored.
D) Protection from exploitation: The art therapist should ask for new consent forms from the participants and exclude any art that sensationalizes a client's expressions related to mental illness.

Question 5

Along the continuum of scientific versus artistic thinking, on the one hand, and art versus therapy on the other hand, where would you locate art therapy research that measures the effects of treatment?

A) scientific knowledge/art quadrant
B) artistic knowledge/art quadrant
C) scientific knowledge/therapy quadrant
D) artistic knowledge/therapy quadrant

Question 6

Along the continuum of scientific versus artistic thinking, on the one hand, and art versus therapy on the other hand, where would you locate art therapy research that studies the impact of key therapy processes on artistic expression?

A) scientific knowledge/art quadrant
B) artistic knowledge/art quadrant
C) scientific knowledge/therapy quadrant
D) artistic knowledge/therapy quadrant

Question 7

What is the difference between informal versus formal assessment?

A) Formal assessment is used in research to measure an effect, whereas informal assessment is used in daily clinical work to observe client functioning or changes in the therapeutic relationship.
B) Formal and informal assessments are used in research to increase the validity and reliability of an art therapy program.
C) Formal assessment is used by psychologists in standardized tests; art therapists use informal assessment because art is not proven to be valid.
D) Formal assessment is used in art therapy when the therapist names and publishes an evaluation procedure; informal assessment may be in development but has not been published.

Question 8

Name 3 art-based assessments that are establishing validity and reliability (although confounding factors like drawing skill and culture must be taken into account).

Question 9

Match the purpose with the research paradigm:
-causal explanations and predictive bases for generating knowledge

A) Empiricist
B) Critical paradigm
C) Interpretivist paradigm
D) Art practice

Question 10

Match the purpose with the research paradigm:
-inquiry into social constructions, narratives, and perspectives to construct or inform knowledge

A) Empiricist
B) Critical paradigm
C) Interpretivist paradigm
D) Art practice

Question 11

Match the purpose with the research paradigm:
-understanding of how people create meaning from their experiences

A) Empiricist
B) Critical paradigm
C) Interpretivist paradigm
D) Art practice

Question 12

Match the purpose with the research paradigm:
-art as a vehicle for inquiry for art therapists

A) Empiricist
B) Critical paradigm
C) Interpretivist paradigm
D) Art practice

Question 13

What did Daley mean when she wrote that "learning to see is fundamental to both artists and scientists"?

Question 14

Through journal writing, reflect on an art therapy session that you found particularly challenging. Write a narrative description of the setting, the clients, treatment goals, and the events or feelings that you remember about the session. Then re-imagine the session as a painting. What relationships of colors, forms, and textures would you use to depict what happened and what it felt like being in the session with the clients? Finally, share your painting with others and discuss in terms of the aesthetic-relational worldview of the art therapist.

Question 15

Read a small number of published art therapy research reports that include art as data. Create an imaginary interview with one of the art images from the reports as if the art image was a participant in the study. How would the image respond to the questions "Were your rights as an image honored and respected? Did the study protect your best interests?"

Question 16

Design a simple art evaluation that assesses either what brought the person to therapy or how the person feels while making art.

Question 17

Create an autobiographic art piece that rejects the scientist versus artist binary and re-imagines yourself as an artist-scientist, scientist-artist, or artist-researcher. Present your image to others and discuss.