Graphology

About: Graphology is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 214 publications have been published within this topic receiving 2492 citations.

The distinction between "Graphology" and "Questioned Document Examination".

Abstract: A distinction must be drawn between the Various studies associated with the acts of writing, the preparation of documents by other means, and the examinations involved in determining the authorship...

Mood changes in response to electroacupuncture treatment in a classroom situation. Personality type, emotional intelligence and prior acupuncture experience, with an exploration of Shannon entropy, response style and graphology variables

Abstract: Background. We have used multiple rating scales to assess moods in our research since 2011. Here we present the results of using a multiple NRS for mood, the NRS‐M, before and after electroacupuncture (EA) delivered by and to students in a classroom situation. With a variety of innovative secondary measures, we explore how the NRS‐M was scored, and also whether personality type, emotional intelligence and the helpfulness of prior acupuncture impacted on NRS‐ M scores and changes. Objectives. 1. To pilot primary measures of personality type, emotional intelligence (EI) and the helpfulness of prior acupuncture in a teaching situation; 2. To develop secondary measures to describe how the NRS‐M and EI scales are completed; 3. To provide descriptive statistics for these primary and secondary measures; 4. To investigate interactions between the primary and secondary measures; 5. To draw conclusions from the resulting findings. Methods. Respondents were recruited during six EA teaching sessions in the UK, attended as part of the requirement for a University degree qualification in acupuncture practice. The teaching sessions all followed a similar standard pattern, and respondents were not obliged to complete the scales. Ethics approval was granted under applications for related studies by the Health and Human Sciences Ethics Committee of the University of Hertfordshire, UK. Permission was also received from the course organisers and respondents themselves. Further information on the questionnaires and secondary measures used, together with their analysis, is provided online at http://www.qeeg.co.uk/electroacupuncture/. Results. Mood changes exhibited a ‘regression to the median’: ‘Positive’ moods tended to increase and ‘negative’ moods to decrease. Intuitive Jungian (Myers‐Briggs) types outnumbered Sensing types, and Feeling types outnumbered Thinking types, supporting the view of acupuncturists as likely to be – or to consider themselves as – more ‘touchy‐ feely’ than thinking types. In support of this, emotional intelligence (EI) scores for these acupuncture students appeared significantly higher than the reference norms for the general population. There were also differences in response between Introverts and Extraverts, and several dimensions of EI that can be considered as markers of self‐regulation were significantly more prominent for ‘good responders’ than ‘poor responders’. In addition, those who initially felt more ‘Gloomy’ were slightly more likely to position their X below the line when scoring their moods using the NRS, whereas EI Optimism tended to be higher in those scoring above the line. Conclusions. Many statistical tests were conducted to assess differences and associations between the primary and secondary measures used in this study, so at least some of these findings are likely to be the result of chance. They should therefore be treated with caution rather than embraced uncritically. Nevertheless, our results may be helpful when entering the uncharted waters of the question ‘Who responds well to acupuncture?’, our next major project. Similarly, this first known attempt to use Shannon entropy to analyse questionnaire results was disappointing, but could pave the way to investigating whether variability (uncertainty) in responses to self‐report instruments is in any way associated (positively) with more openness or awareness, or (negatively) with levels of stress or anxiety.

Graphology in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s : Amateurs, Psychologists, and the Police on the Scientific Nature of Graphology.

Abstract: In this article I examine how psychologists, amateurs and actors in the police and in juridical fields positioned themselves in the 1920s and 1930s on the scientific nature of graphology. Graphology, the study of the character from handwriting, was linked with the hope of providing reliable methods for the investigation of psychological states and dispositions. The essay argues that on an epistemic level two different models have been represented to support the scientific nature of graphology: for one thing resorting to the special individual skill, the “genius” of a graphologist; or rather depersonalized techniques predominantly based on statistics. Amateur graphologists used both of these forms. On a methodological level, I argue that in order to historicize the human sciences in general, and psychology in particular, it is useful to examine the translation processes that turn everyday interpretative practices (of facial expressions, dreams, handwriting) into scientific legitimate investigative procedures. In order to investigate precisely this translation process, it is useful to look at what Thomas Gieryn calls “boundary work” at the border between scientific and non-scientific interpretation practices, for which graphology is used here as an example. It is particularly illuminating to examine how representatives of the official sciences distinguish themselves from presumed “charlatans”, which is why the article focuses on court cases and the demarcation strategies used by the police against fraudulent amateur graphologists.

The computational analyses of handwriting in individuals with psychopathic personality disorder.

Abstract: The main aim of the present study was to examine several parameters of handwriting in order to identify the putative specific patterns of writing associated with psychopathic personality disorder. The hypothesis-generating study was carried out with the use of Mann-Whitney U test to compare two groups of prisoners, without p-value, effect size, and confidence intervals for effect size. The handwriting samples were obtained from two groups of individuals: prisoners diagnosed with psychopathic personality (n = 50), prisoners without psychopathic personality disorder (n = 30). Two groups were matched in terms of intellectual level, age, and education. The examined handwriting samples were identical. To examine graphical parameters such as structure, proportions, density, inter-spaces, and impulse, the computer programs GlobalGraf were used. This software is employed by Polish Forensic Association. The inter-group comparisons of graphical parameters have shown there is no significant difference (95% confidence intervals for the effect sizes included 0, or negative numbers) in handwriting between prisoners with psychopathic personality disorder and prisoners without this disorder. Logistic regression has been calculated to show whether any handwriting patterns allow to predict psychopathic personality disorder. Results indicate that participants with psychopathic personality disorder do not exhibit significant motor impairments manifesting in structural, density, topographic, proportions, letter spacing, and impulse features of handwriting. This suggests, contrary to many beliefs related to graphology, that psychopathic personality cannot be identified on the basis of computational forensic examination of handwriting.

Comment on an article by Mandeville, Peeples, and Stutler

Abstract: Specific suggestions for replication and extension of Mandeville, Peeples, and Stutler (1990) are made.