Developmental Trends in Children's Internal Body Knowledge

Literature on children's internal body knowledge has consistently indicated that knowledge about the body develops in an orderly sequence with increasing age. How much children currently know about their internal organs, however, may be influenced by the increase in health and body information available through school education programmes. As there is little recent research in this area, the present study aimed to provide an update on what Australian children currently understand about their anatomy, and to corroborate the developmental trends found in previous research. One hundred and eighty-nine school children aged 7 to 12 years were asked to draw the interior of the body in a body outline provided, with a subset of 54 children also being interviewed about their understanding of their anatomy. The developmental trends found in this study were broadly consistent with those reported in the existing literature on children's inside body knowledge, and are similar to those documented with children's human figure drawing; namely, that children's body knowledge and understanding increased with age. Although awareness of the integration of internal body parts amongst children in the present study seemed more developed than suggested in previous studies, the availability of educational resources influencing children's knowledge about their internal organs remains equivocal. Nevertheless, this research has relevance for those involved in children's health awareness and education, as well as direct implications for paediatric health care procedures.

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Directed Movements and the Body-Proportion Effect in Preschool Children's Human Figure Drawing

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1080/14640747708400599 ◽

1977 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 227-235 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

N. H. Freeman ◽

S. Hargreaves

Keyword(s):

The Body ◽

Body Parts ◽

Control Performance ◽

Body Proportion ◽

Human Figure Drawing ◽

Human Figure ◽

Figure Drawing ◽

Post Hoc ◽

Planning Problems ◽

Complex Planning

Drawing a human figure involves mastery over complex planning problems. The variant forms which young children produce may be an index of these. The most common variant is the “tadpole figure” with arms seemingly on the head. It is known that children who spontaneously draw this variant will attach arms correctly to the trunk of an incomplete pre-drawn figure if the head is small, but will attach them to the head if that exceeds the trunk in size. The present study shows that this body-proportion effect cannot be reliably modified by directing the pen to the head or trunk for the purpose of drawing body-parts other than arms; and that the arms are much more subject to the effect than the legs, nose, navel or ears. Experimental analysis of drawing based on completion-tasks can in principle help to bring out, and put under stimulus-control, performance characteristics which cannot reliably be inferred from post-hoc inspection of spontaneous finished products.

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Self-Attitude and Body Image Satisfaction in Women with Alopecia at Different Stages of Chemotherapy

Clinical Psychology and Special Education ◽

10.17759/cpse.2020090209 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 173-195

Author(s):

A.G. Faustova ◽

I.S. Vinogradova

Keyword(s):

Body Image ◽

Self Esteem ◽

The Body ◽

The Self ◽

Body Image Satisfaction ◽

Projective Technique ◽

Human Figure Drawing ◽

Human Figure ◽

Figure Drawing ◽

Experimental Group

Diagnostic and therapeutic procedures used in various oncological diseases are often accompanied by the unwanted and uncontrolled appearance defects. The presence of an acquired visible difference is a significant source of stress, which is often ignored. The aim of the study was to explore the relationship between self-attitude and body image satisfaction in women with alopecia undergoing chemotherapy for cancer of the reproductive system. The study involved 20 women (mean age 52,15 years) without alopecia who start a course of chemotherapy treatment, and 20 women (mean age 51,55 years) with alopecia provoked by 10-40 courses of chemotherapy. An empirical study was conducted at the Ryazan Regional Clinical Oncology Center. Respondents were asked to fill out the Scale for assessing the level of satisfaction with the own body (O.A. Skugarevsky), the Self-Attitude Questionnaire (S.R. Pantileev), and to perform the projective technique “Human Figure Drawing” (K. Machover, F. Goodenough). Based on the obtained empirical data, specific regression models were revealed for each sample, demonstrating the dependence of self-attitude on the self-assessment of various components of the body image. In the experimental group of patients without alopecia, an adaptive level of self-acceptance is underlied by the high self-esteem of the external appearance of the chest (p=0,028), ears (p=0,039), and hair (p=0,017). Self-attachment among respondents in this group is determined by self-esteem of the abdomen (p=0,037). In the experimental group of patients with alopecia, other components of self-attitude were the most significant. The level of self-accusation is determined by the self-esteem of the pelvic region (p=0,048), ears (p=0,043), and hair (p=0,047). The reflected Self-attitude is determined to self-esteem of the chest (p=0,029), back (p=0,032), and arms (p=0,027). The patterns revealed in each sample are confirmed by the results of the projective technique “Human Figure Drawing”. Women with cancer of the reproductive organs, both before and after chemotherapy, mainly pay attention to those components of the body image that are associated with femininity and physical attractiveness, as well as those that undergo severe changes in the process of radical treatment.

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Body and emotion

Pragmatics & Cognition ◽

10.1075/pc.10.1-2.14yu ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 10 (1-2) ◽

pp. 341-367 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Ning Yu

Keyword(s):

Semantic Analysis ◽

Cultural Models ◽

Body Part ◽

The Body ◽

Body Parts ◽

Emotional Experiences ◽

Emotional Symptoms ◽

Internal Organs ◽

Internal Body ◽

External Body

This study presents a semantic analysis of how emotions and emotional experiences are described in Chinese. It focuses on conventionalized expressions in Chinese, namely compounds and idioms, which contain body-part terms. The body-part terms are divided into two classes: those denoting external body parts and those denoting internal body parts or organs. It is found that, with a few exceptions, the expressions involving external body parts are originally metonymic, describing emotions in terms of their externally observable bodily events and processes. However, once conventionalized, these expressions are also used metaphorically regardless of emotional symptoms or gestures. The expressions involving internal organs evoke imaginary bodily images that are primarily metaphorical. It is found that the metaphors, though imaginary in nature, are not really all arbitrary. They seem to have a bodily or psychological basis, although they are inevitably influenced by cultural models.

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Human-Figure Drawing (HFD) in the Screening of Cognitive Impairment in Old Age

Journal of Medical Screening ◽

10.1177/096914139600300212 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 105-109 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Kjerstin Ericsson ◽

Pernilla Hillerås ◽

Karin Holmén ◽

Bengt Winblad

Keyword(s):

Structural Characteristics ◽

Population Based ◽

The Body ◽

Primitive Form ◽

Healthy Elderly ◽

Human Figure Drawing ◽

Human Figure ◽

Left Corner ◽

Figure Drawing ◽

Regressive Changes

Objective –The aim of the study is to test the hypothesis that freehand human-figure drawing (HFD), can be used as a complementary screening instrument to differentiate between demented elderly people and healthy elderly controls in population based studies Method –HFD was examined in 668 elderly (⩾ 75 years of age) participants from an epidemiological study in Stockholm, who were asked to draw a human figure. The drawings were analysed on the content of body details and structural characteristics. Result –The results show quite clearly that the body details and the height decrease with decreasing cognitive function, whereas the centredness (the distance in cm from the centre of the figure to the centre of the paper) increases with decreasing cognitive functioning. Demented people place their figures in the upper left: corner of the sheet, compared with the mostly well centred figures of non-demented people. Age, on the other hand, has an influence on the HFD as after 90 years of age most of the variable show regressive changes. Conclusion –The HFD can help to differentiate between demented and non-demented subjects as well as between dementia of different severity. The HFD does not help us, however, to discriminate between Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. Age has an influence on the HFD in the sense that after 90 years most of the variables regress to a smaller or more primitive form.

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Body and emotion: Body parts in Chinese expression of emotion

Pragmatics & Cognition ◽

10.1075/pc.10.12.14yu ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 10 (1-2) ◽

pp. 341-367 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Keyword(s):

Semantic Analysis ◽

Cultural Models ◽

Body Part ◽

The Body ◽

Body Parts ◽

Emotional Symptoms ◽

Internal Organs ◽

Expression Of Emotion ◽

Internal Body ◽

External Body

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Analysis of Emotional Indicators in Human Figure Drawings as Related to Self-Esteem

Perceptual and Motor Skills ◽

10.1177/003151257303700326 ◽

1973 ◽

Vol 37 (3) ◽

pp. 795-802 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Robert E. Prytula ◽

Nancy Dunn Thompson

Keyword(s):

Body Height ◽

Self Esteem ◽

The Body ◽

Drawing Task ◽

Human Figure Drawing ◽

Human Figure ◽

Emotional Indicators ◽

Figure Drawings ◽

Figure Drawing ◽

Consistent Support

2 groups of 10- through 13-yr.-old children were separated for high and low self-esteem, and given a human figure-drawing task. Figures drawn were Man, Woman, Self, and Eskimo. Subsequently, the drawings were scored on six emotional indicators such as body height and width, area, erasures, transparencies, and omissions. The results do not offer consistent support for the body-image hypothesis as related to self-esteem. Ss did not differ in terms of drawn size of Self figure, nor did Ss high in self-esteem draw significantly larger figures across all drawings as compared with those low in self-esteem. Although the latter drew significantly more transparencies, no other conflict indicators were significant in comparing groups of Ss low and high in esteem.

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