Karl Koch Tree Test To Interpret Personality

The Karl Koch tree test is a projective psychological test to analyze people’s personalities and the underlying emotional universe. Given the ease of its application, it is commonly given to children. However, it’s a useful self-analysis tool for adults as well, as it helps them get to know each other a little better.

This test, also known as “Baumtest”, was developed by psychologist Charles Koch around the 1950s. It would be an understatement to say that the test consists simply of asking a child or an adult to draw a tree with its roots, trunk and crown, many readers would doubt the reliability and validity of this evaluation tool.

Before reaching this conclusion, it is worth considering a few questions. Projective tests are a very useful clinical tool because they allow you to understand how patients perceive, understand and manage their world. Together with the Rorschach test and the drawing of the person in the rain, the tree test is a very effective and complementary test (not exclusive, therefore) to many others.

It must also be said that Doctor Koch chose the figure of the tree for this diagnostic test because of the symbology it contains. In all cultures and countries, trees have always had mythological and totemic references. Trying to shape them, to draw them, is like trying to bring out the lights and shadows that are inside us.

What does the Koch tree test evaluate?

Karl Koch’s tree test, like any other exercise that invites us to draw a drawing, to choose colors, to create a figure out of nothing on a white sheet, gives some clues about our personality. Furthermore, it denotes a certain emotional state.

• It also measures a person’s stability, the presence or absence of internal conflicts, vulnerability and sensitivity.
• On the other hand, certain psychological currents, such as psychoanalysis, claim that this test also reveals the structure of the psyche or the content of our unconscious.
• According to a recent study, the tree test was found to be very effective in diagnosing cognitive disabilities or even principles of dementia.

How is the test performed?

This test can be given to anyone aged 5 or 6 years of age. Certain basic motor skills involved in the drawing process are required.

• The person is given blank sheets of paper, colored pencils and an eraser.
• You are asked to draw a tree with roots, trunk, branches, etc.
• Children aged 5 or 6 are asked to make two drawings. The first, a free drawing: “draw the tree you want, one you like”. The second drawing must be a different tree than the first. In this sense, two drawings make it possible to make a more precise evaluation.
• The test run time ranges from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the person.

How do you analyze the Karl Koch tree test?

You have to pay attention to several elements:

Ground

• A drawing in which the ground line or roots are missing may indicate a lack of emotional and personal stability.
• Disproportionate and ray-shaped roots can suggest the presence of problems with emotional repression, anger and instability.

Trunk

• A very thin trunk is associated with very sensitive and delicate people or it could suggest the presence of tensions or external requests that alter their calm and well-being.
• A very broad trunk indicates impulsiveness, high emotionality and poor self-control.
• A trunk formed by straight lines denotes precision and a great capacity for abstraction.
• A trunk with wavy lines indicates a great capacity for socialization and sweetness.

• Trunks with irregularities, spots, voids, spikes indicate the presence of fears, trauma, repressed emotions, inhibition.

Hair

The crown of the tree reflects the interaction with the physical and external world. While the trunk and roots are more associated with the inner and emotional world, the branches represent a different psychic level.

• Narrow Hair: Up to the age of 9, children always draw small, narrow hair. It is normal, it denotes immaturity and a connection with the infantile world.
• Large hair: This may suggest that the person is highly imaginative, enthusiastic, or may have some characteristics of narcissism.
• A tree with no foliage can indicate that the person in question has a possible cognitive development problem.
• Spiral hair: the person has communication skills, good taste and is delicate.

• Hair in the shape of rays or rods: the person is impulsive, hatching anger or provocative feelings.
• Crown with leaves – the person is lively.
• Hair with fruits: the person has goals and desires to achieve.

To these values ​​are added many others, such as the presence of “accessory” elements, such as houses, birds, hills… In other words, details not requested by the psychologist who can still suggest relevant information. It is also good to take into account the colors chosen to draw the tree and the size of the figures.

Elements such as cut branches, holes or grooves in the trunks, lack of roots or the use of dark colors are sure to attract attention. All this could suggest the presence of trauma. However, as we anticipated at the beginning of the article, the Karl Koch tree test is not used as the sole and exclusive diagnostic test. It is a very interesting evaluation tool which, in combination with other equally valid ones, can provide useful information in order to develop a more precise diagnosis.