Baum test is a simple drawing test to analyze an individual’s personality and underlying emotional history. It is the one with longest drawing test. It is developed by Swiss psychologist Charles Koch in 1952 and used extensively across the world in clinically. A tree is selected as the object to be drawn because tree serves as an important element in many mythologies all over the world. Also trees are a nonthreatening element that allow for a wide range of adaptation. It is suggested that the type of tree individuals draw related to the structure of psyche or unconscious.
Test is simple as it sounds. Participant is given A4 paper and 2B/4B pencil and asked to draw a tree.
There are 2 forms of analysis. The global analysis views the tree as a whole (overall size, location on the paper). For example, people who draw tree on upper part of paper are the ones who are extroverts and ambitious. The internal analysis focuses on the finer details of the trees such as roots, trunk, branches, leaves, symmetry, archetypal features, etc.
It is true that this kind of drawing test is not scored objectively. Therefore the test may not be reliable. But there are evidences proving Baum test are quite reliable.
One study shows that immaturity score constructed from the Baum test correlate with a teacher’s maturity scoring of essays
The other study use Baum test to characterize difference between eating disorder groups and control group. The studies indicate that patients with eating disorders tend to draw a smaller than average tree, in both the total size and the width of the trunk. Also, among the subgroups of patients, the anorexic sub-type was found to draw a smaller tree than did the bulimic sub-type. In terms of the location of the tree, patients’ trees tended to be located in the left area of the paper. Furthermore, the drawing by patients with eating disorders tended to lack horizon and security operations, and this tendency was more characteristic of anorexics than bulimics.
