PlayInfoBox

Home /Personality /What Is the HTP (House-Tree-Person) Drawing Test?

What Is the HTP (House-Tree-Person) Drawing Test?

House, tree, and person β€” the concept and origin of a well-known projective drawing test.

House

In HTP, the house drawing is treated as a clue to how the person taking the test perceives their home environment, family relationships, and sense of a life foundation. A trained professional looks not just at the drawing's details but also at how the person answers follow-up questions asked after drawing it.

Tree

The tree drawing is interpreted as reflecting a person's inner life, particularly an unconscious self-image and feelings about growth, that they may not be fully aware of themselves. It's often considered less guarded or defended than the person drawing, since people tend to project more freely onto a tree.

Person

The person drawing is interpreted as reflecting the self-image, body image, and social self that someone consciously recognizes in themselves. Compared to the tree drawing, it's often considered more likely to be drawn with some degree of conscious guardedness.

What Is the HTP Test?

The HTP (House-Tree-Person) test is a well-known projective drawing test first devised in 1948 by American psychologist John Buck. It asks the person being assessed to freely draw a house, a tree, and a person, in that order, and then explores the drawings through a set of structured follow-up questions (originally around 20 per drawing). Psychologist Emanuel Hammer expanded the interpretive framework in 1958, and Buck and Hammer released a revised edition together in 1969 that established the form still used today.

Why Three Different Drawings?

HTP uses three drawings rather than one so that the person's inner world can be examined from several different angles at once. The house is thought to reflect perceptions of home and family; the tree, a relatively less defended unconscious self-image; and the person, a consciously recognized self-image and social self. The key point is that this framework is meant to be read as a whole, all three drawings together, alongside the person's own explanations, rather than in isolation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can adults take the HTP test too?

Yes. In principle, it's described as usable from around age three onward with no upper age limit, and it's sometimes used as a supplementary tool with adults where brain injury or a neurological issue is suspected, too.

Does being bad at drawing hurt your results?

No, it isn't a test of artistic skill. A trained professional looks at the composition, placement, and size of elements in the drawing, along with the answers given afterward, rather than how technically polished the drawing itself is.