Utilizing the Crisis Wartegg System (CWS) to Assess Emotional and Cognitive Function in Patients with Parkinson's Disease - A Proposal

Date of Award

Summer 8-23-2025

Document Type

Doctoral Research Paper

Degree Name

Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology

Organizational Unit

Graduate School of Professional Psychology

First Advisor

Carrie M. Landin

Second Advisor

Kelley M. Quirk

Third Advisor

Jacob A. Palm

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Keywords

Parkinson’s disease, Crisis Wartegg System, Emotional adaptability, Cognitive assessment, Projective testing, Executive function

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative condition that impacts not only motor functioning but also cognitive and emotional regulation. These non-motor symptoms are often underrecognized and undertreated, highlighting the need for sensitive and accessible assessment tools. This study explores the utility of the Wartegg Drawing Completion Test (WDCT), scored using the standardized Crisi Wartegg System (CWS; Crisi, 1998, 2007; Crisi & Palm, 2018), as a performance-based method for assessing emotional adaptability and coping in individuals with mild to moderate PD. The research will employ a cross-sectional, descriptive design with correlational analyses using SPSS 11.0. Participants will include 50 individuals with PD and 50 age- and gender-matched controls, recruited from the University of Kansas Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorder Center. Measures will include the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), the Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS), the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) or Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and the CWS. We hypothesize that PD participants will show lower evocative character (EC%) scores, indicating reduced perceptual and associative engagement; lower form quality (FQ%) scores, reflecting diminished clarity and organization in visual expression; and lower affective quality (AQ%) scores, representing reduced emotional expression. Psychiatric symptoms like anxiety, depression, and cognitive slowing are discussed as contributing factors (Anderson, 2004; APDA, n.d.). The MoCA’s Clock Drawing Test and other visuospatial tasks help contextualize cognitive decline in PD (Talwar et al., 2019; Riedel et al., 2013). Limitations will include single-site recruitment, motor impairment effects, variability from medication, lack of gender or age stratification, and limited CWS norms for individuals over age 90. Findings are expected to support the value of the CWS in capturing psychological functioning in PD beyond traditional assessments.

Copyright Date

7-11-2025

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. Permanently suppressed.

Rights Holder

Esha Riya Pahwa

Provenance

Received from author

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

26 pgs

File Size

232 KB

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