Indicadores emocionais em crianças amazônidas: um estudo descritivo com a Técnica da Casa-Árvore-Pessoa e o Teste das Pirâmides Coloridas de Pfister

Abstract

Child psychological assessment plays a fundamental role in understanding emotional development, particularly when conducted in a manner sensitive to sociocultural and contextual specificities. In Brazil, there is a significant gap in studies investigating emotional indicators in Amazonian children using projective methods, which limits the production of contextualized knowledge about this population. Embedded within the research line Psychological Processes and Health of the Graduate Program in Psychology at the Federal University of Amazonas (PPGPSI/UFAM), this dissertation aimed to assess emotional indicators in Amazonian children using the House-Tree-Person Drawing Technique (HTP) and the Pfister Color Pyramid Test (PCPT), considering developmental aspects and the presence or absence of emotionally traumatic experiences. This is a cross-sectional, descriptive, and exploratory study. The sample consisted of 21 children aged between six and 11 years, enrolled in public and private schools in the city of Manaus. Data collection occurred in a single individual session, during which the HTP and PCPT were administered, along with a sociodemographic questionnaire completed by the children’s caregivers. Data analysis followed the guidelines established in the manuals of the instruments, focusing on adaptive and expressive aspects in the HTP and on formal aspects and color formula in the PCPT. Additionally, possible differences between children with and without a history of emotionally traumatic experiences were explored.Overall, the results revealed patterns of psychological organization consistent with what is expected for the assessed age group, with a predominance of normative developmental indicators, such as thematic adequacy in drawings and pure carpets in the Pfister pyramids. However, relevant differences emerged between groups, particularly the higher recurrence of perforated or torn carpets and extreme variations in drawing size among children with a history of emotional trauma, suggesting the impact of such experiences on emotional organization and symbolic expression. The findings indicate that projective methods are sensitive tools for identifying emotional indicators in Amazonian children and support their relevance in child psychological assessment and research on psychological processes and health. The study highlights the importance of integrating sociocultural context and emotional history into the interpretation of assessment results and points to practical implications for psychological assessment, prevention, and intervention in clinical and school settings. Furthermore, it contributes to the advancement of scientific knowledge in the Amazon region and underscores the need for future research with larger samples to strengthen psychometric evidence and promote more contextualized assessment practices.