Graphology and Personality Profiling the

Graphology and Personality Profiling The study and analysis of handwriting characteristics relating to human psychology, or graphology, has its roots in the late Renaissance. However, it was not until the mid-19th century that handwriting analysis became more scientific, with the founding of the Societe' Graphologie, which took a holistic, but epistemological approach to the subject (Seifer, 2008, intro).

The famous educator Alfred Binet called graphology the "science of the future," and after World War I greater scientific focus was given to the subject in Europe and the United States, resulting in two schools developing; the American Grapho Analysis Society and the Klara Roman School of thought based on psychological research at New York's New School for Social research Neter and Ben-Shakhar, 1989).

By 1976 the various schools had merged into the Council of Graphological Societies, but with the rise of the Internet and less need for handwriting analysis, both the communication between members of the field and the actual forensic or psychological use of graphology has dramatically declined. Basic Systematic Approaches to Graphology- There are three major approaches to graphology: integrative, holistic, and symbolic: Integrative Graphology -- Posits the notion that stroke structures in individual handwriting relate to assigned personality traits (thickness, directionality, etc.).

This system works from the inner parts of a word and moves to the outer parts ("Graphology," 2009). Holistic Graphology -- Also known as Gestalt Graphology (which is actually a misnomer), constructs profiles based on form, movement and space; or the outside in. (Ibid.) Symbolic Analysis -- In this approach, the graphologist looks for symbolism within the writing; stroke to page, meaning of stroke, missing letters, curls, etc. This is the most common form, and combines Integrative and Holistic (Beyerstein, 2008).

Validity of Graphology -- Despite limited support in the scientific community for graphology, most psychological studies invalidate it as anything but a limited screening tool. In a 1987 study, graphology was unable to predict scores on the Sysernck personality questionnaire (Furnham and Gunter, 1987), in 1988 unable to predict Myers-Briggs scores (Bayne and O'Neill, 1988), and a 1982 meta-analysis drawn from over 200 longitudinal studies found that graphology was generally unable to predict any formalized personality traits (Kahnerman, et.al., 1982, 211-38). While on the surface graphology seems somewhat predictive (e.g.

A neat person having neat handwriting), the broad range of psychological manifestations in individuals simply has no correlation over the generalized population (Crumbaugh and Stockholm, 1977). Discussion -- This being said, from a forensic psychology paradigm, it is interesting to note and compare two different approaches, both psychological, to the subject of handwriting as a predictive tool for gauging personality issues, or abnormalities.

A 1919 article artuged through a series of graphological theories that there were correlations between the traits of the individual and the traits of that individual's writing (Hull and Montgomery). In this study, 17 Students at the University of Wisconsin were selected and asked to simply write a paragraph. As students were also asked to self-rank and rank their peers on six specific traits of personality: pride, ambition, force, perseverance, reserve, and bashfulness.

In many ways, the authors based their previous assumptions on the works of Alfred Binet showing that numerous graphologists made predictive scores that were from 11% to 40% over the chance hypothesis of 50%. This led Binet to conclude that there could be a potential relationship between handwriting and exhibited personality traits (65).

Table 1 indicates the supposed correlation: Table 1 -- Binet's correlative model (66) Emotion/Trait Correlation Ambition Lines of writing slope upward Pride Lines of writing slope upward Bashfulness Writing traced with fine lines Force Heavy lines, heavy bars Perseverance Heavy and long bars on the t's Reserve Closed A's and O's Once the data was collected and analyzed, Hull and Montgomery took the self -- and peer related information and correlated it with certain aspects of the handwriting.

Looking at ten traits of personality that fit with handwriting, the data show as many negative correlations as positive. In fact, the average correlation between the entire ten traits is .016 -- or practically zero. "And since the above are a fair sampling of graphologists' claims as to the relation between handwriting and character, this figure may be taken with some assurance as typical of the whole" (73).

Table 2 -- Correlation of Character Traits with Handwriting (Hull and Montgomery) Emotion/Trait Shape of Writing Correlation Ambition Upward Sloping Line -.20 Pride Upward Sloping Line -.09 Bashfulness Firmness of Line -.45 Bashfulness Lateral narrowness of m's and n's +.38 Force Heavy Handwriting -.17 Force Heavy bars on t's -.06 Perseverance Length of bars on t's 0 Perseverance Length of bars on t's compensating +.16 Reserve Closed as and o's -.02 Now, we jump to 1954, with a study by Lorr, Lepine, and Goldner entitled, "A Factor Analysis of Some Handwriting Characteristics." Initially, the authors are open minded about the subject, citing that one of the difficulties has been the lack of proper measurement regarding graphological characteristics.

In addition, since different types of pedagogy exist when teaching writing, it is difficult to compare students without solid factors. In this study, a group of 200 right-handed graduate psychology students with a median age of 27 were asked to us an ink pen and write a full page story on a standard sheet of unruled paper. No subject was aware that their writing would be used in analysis. In addition, to help validate personality traits, a 100 question personality inventory was administered, scaled to measure personality issues from gregariousness to inferiority.

Three samples were taken from each individual -- the first word in the first line, the middle work in the middle line, and the last word of the last complete line. Measurements were taken to the 10th of a millimeter for stroke, angle, weight, and dimension. Analysis of the study, even with the more robust personality inventory found that the correlation scales were uniformly low.

Six were above 26 but none above 30, leading the authors to believe that no systematic relationship exists between handwriting factors and personality traits measured by the questionnaire (352). Conclusions- It is fascinating to note that two studies three decades apart resulted in the same conclusions, yet the "science" of graphology still had not been formally refuted by the Psychological field, and from the 1950s to the 1970s was actually popular as a test basis, courtroom evidence, and even in medical wards devoted to the criminally insane.

Two, or more, idiosyncratic traits of an individual may or may not be correlated based on something like handwriting, since the outside factors are so enormous. Signatures vary.