In our age of computer technology, pen and paper are increasingly forgotten - meanwhile, earlier, the pen regularly served human needs for several thousand years. There is nothing surprising in the fact that in the vast manuscript collection of mankind one cannot find two artifacts exactly similar to each other - after all, the handwriting is as individual as the person himself.
The science of graphology is also engaged in the comparative analysis of personality traits and handwriting traits.
Graphology is an area of knowledge about handwriting and methods of its study from the point of view of the mental states reflected in it and the personality traits of the writer. Various characteristics of handwriting together provide valuable information about a person's temperament, character, state at the time of writing, attitude to the subject and the content of what was written. One of the tools in psychodiagnostics.
Psychological analysis of handwriting involves taking into account all known information about a given individual and the circumstances of writing the analyzed text. Thus, the peculiarities of the psychology of men and women are already manifested in various types of handwriting, which, as one might assume, can reveal themselves in work.
For example, male handwriting, according to graphology, is characterized by the following: carefree, awkward; hasty, wrong (uneven); letters remain open; the handwriting is ugly, looks bad; sweeping; wide lines and wide letters; firm, strong pressure; sharp corners; errors; individual - original; lean forward; solid; free.
Women's handwriting: meticulous; clean; uniform; accurate; certain; correct, letters without missing characters; beautiful; small lines without pressure; rounded off; standard; tilt back; compact; with close letters
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The results of modern research confirm the existing relationship between handwriting and some mental characteristics of a person. According to many psychologists, in handwriting, more than in any other motor activity of a person, his mental essence is manifested. The fact is that the unconscious tension of certain muscle groups accompanies all our mental movements. So, if a person is in some kind of persistent emotional state or there is a persistent tendency in behavior, then this will manifest itself in persistent tension of individual muscle groups.
Differences in the tone of different muscle groups will be the source of differences in the arrangement of lines on the paper, which will manifest itself in the originality of the handwriting. In addition, over the long history of mankind, some geometric concepts have turned for us into a symbol, to which we can relate in different ways, accepting or rejecting it. For example, "sharp corners" are usually associated with stubbornness, sharpness, intransigence, which is often reflected in the writing of letters: but if stubbornness and sharpness are unpleasant for us, we will avoid sharp corners in writing, because we know about this associations.
Handwriting also depends on the type of nervous system, which is confirmed by modern research on the professional selection of people. After all, writing, like any other work, requires a certain amount of energy, and it can be spent on this work more or less. You can write the same thing in large or small letters and at the same time press on the paper with more or less force. And it will depend on the "energy block" of the brain, with which affects and the general activity of the cortex are associated, which is manifested in the corresponding type of higher nervous activity of a person.
Graphological examination is widely used in modern practice of personnel selection. For example, in the assessment centers of the United States, when selecting new employees, a graphological examination of the applicant's questionnaires is used according to 238 criteria, which can be used to describe: the location of the text, the direction and inclination of the letters, their size and shape, the rhythm of the writing, etc.
The main signs of handwriting, which are analyzed by a graphological examination:
Letter size: (very small, small, medium, large).
Tilt letters: (left tilt, slight tilt to the left, right tilt, sharp tilt to the right).
Handwriting direction: (lines creep up, lines are straight, lines creep down).
Spread and pressure: (light, medium, strong, very strong).
The nature of the spelling of words: (a tendency to combine letters and words, a tendency to distance letters from each other, mixed style).
General assessment: (the handwriting is diligent, the letters are drawn neatly; the handwriting is uneven, some words are difficult to read; the handwriting is careless, illegible, the letters are written somehow).
What are the signs of handwriting that can be used to identify a leader?
1. Increased speed - that is, a person writes as if in a hurry or running somewhere, the speed in handwriting also determines the person's activity, respectively, the leader must be active.
2. Larger middle of letters - letters are divided into three zones, lower, upper and middle.
3. Stronger pressure - pressure speaks of a person's energy, about its reserves, stronger pressure speaks of energy, respectively, a weak pressure on the contrary
4. Originality - that is, a person does not write as in a copy, his letters take on an original form, individuality
5. Relative readability
6. Productive organization of the text - a person writes in an organized way, even lines, margins are clearly observed
7. Right tilt - the right tilt indicates sociability, that a person is more turned to the outside world
8. Relative constancy of handwriting elements - handwriting stability, uniformity.
Features and cuts
Historical documents eloquently indicate that such extraordinary minds as the Roman historian Guy Suetonius Tranquillus and the thinker Confucius showed interest in studying someone else's handwriting. Subsequently, at the beginning of the 17th century, the Italian physician Camillo Baldi made an attempt to investigate the connection between handwriting and personality, setting out his research on this issue in a treatise with the long title "How to recognize the nature and qualities of a person by looking at the letter he wrote."
In the 20th century, the academic approach to the study of graphology prevailed. In 1939, the authors of the theory of personality traits, Gordon Allport and Philip Vernon, turned to the study of the relationship between writing and the movements of small muscles of the hand, came to the conclusion that the nerve signals sent by the brain to our hand during writing are individual - like our handwriting. In Russia at this time the well-known handwriting expert Dmitry Zuev-Insarov was actively engaged in the study of graphology, whose works formed the fundamental basis for the subsequent formation of the domestic graphic analysis.
Currently, graphology as a discipline is included in many academic programs of European universities. This method is actively used for interviews when selecting candidates for a particular position, it is used for psychodiagnostics of students in schools. In short, graphoanalysis is actively used in a variety of areas - from private to business.
What is written with a pen …
They often "roll a barrel" on graphologists, accusing them of profanity. However, this is just a myth: graphology is a strictly scientific method, if only because it appeals to medical and biological research in the field of psychomotor and neurobiology. Graphoanalysis allows you to establish the relationship between the "written behavior" of a person and the structure of his cognitive activity, making it possible to comprehend the issues of the correlation of handwriting, behavior, and thinking.
Thus, graphology provides an opportunity to characterize a person from a variety of perspectives: optimism and pessimism, flexibility and rigidity, confidence and uncertainty. Paradoxically, but true: graphological studies eloquently indicate that representatives of different nations and ethnic groups are characterized by a different manner of writing. So, the handwriting of the Germans is small and neat, the English is restrained and angular, the Russian is wide and sweeping. However, of course, one should not forget that these data reflect only the general psychological characteristics of a particular people.
The global advantage of the graphological method lies in the fact that in order to put things in order in the confusion reigning in the head, leading it to a harmonious, verified system, you do not need anything but a pen and paper. As the ancient Romans said, "Words fly away, the written remains." By “laying out” the details of our handwriting, graphologists, like psychoanalysts, make the unconscious conscious - and thus contribute to deep personal growth.
In the United States, special graphology bureaus are widespread, specializing in the analysis of the professional and personal qualities of applicants for various management positions according to their handwriting. For companies and government agencies, graphological examination is a simpler, cheaper, and most importantly, more reliable method of selection than traditional psychological tests.
As studies of many foreign and domestic graphologists have shown, there is a high correlation coefficient between the graphological and morphological assessments of an individual, especially in assessing the relationship between a person and the social environment, which are extremely important components of a person's general behavior. Handwriting is highly correlated with the general body type of a person. This makes graphology and graphological examination important for the selection of personnel. We can say the following:
- the handwriting of the picnic is characterized by the absence of separately drawn letters, and the word is one continuous, smooth whole, consisting of one or two complex curved lines, the letters are uniform in size, shape and inclination, rounded. General impression of lightness, ease, smoothness of writing, lack of micrography. The similarity of picnic handwritings among themselves is noted;
- the handwriting of the asthenic is characterized by one or more of the following properties:
1) division of a word into several parts, into letters or parts of letters, not connected to each other;
2) if the letters are connected, then weirdly, unevenly;
3) individual letters are uneven, irregular in size, shape, slope, not rounded, pointed;
4) sometimes the letters are uniform and rounded, but excessive care and accuracy is noted in the derivation of individual letters;
5) the well-known "childishness", incorrectness, uncertainty of handwriting;
6) micrography;
7) the fossilized handwriting, its invariability neither with emotions, nor with the speed of writing;
8) unusual slope of letters;
- the handwriting of the athlete, in contrast to the handwriting of asthenics and picnics, is more variable and is largely associated with the role that the athlete chooses for himself in this or that case. The reincarnation of athletics from one role to another is manifested in the corresponding handwriting.
(Note: Picnic type is a body type characterized by a wide and stocky figure with a short neck, prone to obesity; asthenic type is characterized by high growth, narrow and long chest and weak muscles. Athletic type is characterized by well-developed muscular mass).