Physiological response to the drawing experience.

Abstract

This thesis is an investigation into the human physiological response to a neutral drawing experience, drawing from art therapy and biofeedback to examine what is happening as the participants draw. The hypothesis was that hand temperature will rise while a person is drawing. A rise in hand temperature is associated with relaxation. To test this hypothesis, a quantitative study was developed which uses descriptive statistics. Participants were requested though the Department of Psychology and Special Education at Emporia State University. Out of an initial 100 students who responded 86 students were present at the data collection sessions and 82 sets of data are reviewed in this study. The participants were asked to draw in response to the directive "draw a person picking an apple from a tree" while the researcher recorded their hand temperatures over a 16 minute period. Out of the 82 usable sets of data, 48 showed a rise in hand temperature. None of the correlations that were made to explain why some participants did or did not show a rise in hand temperatures were statistically significant. The results are inconclusive but worth replicating with the limitations addressed. This present research can stimulate further investigations into the physiological responses to art making.