GRAPHOLOGY

An individual's physiological and psychological functions are depicted in a person's handwriting. The act of writing contains spontaneous actions for the purpose of communicating ideas. The examination of a written specimen is the legal basis for forensic identification of an individual. The consistency of script features with their graphometric measurements is repeatable and reliable. Writing is expressive behavior and communicates personality characteristics. The appearance of the written specimen and the tactile sensation of the written performance are the communication vehicles. Writing is a learned habit where the writer has refashioned basic forms. The look and feel of writing dictates our style of writing rather than our formal training. Your writing is the result of your perception of your pen-stroke's touch and visual images.

The act of handwriting uniquely fulfills the requirements for a projective personality test. The writer records responses to testing stimuli by writing. The writer spontaneously constructs random parts (strokes) to form known patterns (letters) into communicated ideas (words). Imposed organization to these ideas (sentences) in a limited area (page) conveys a conscious creative purpose (message). The physical data is recorded as a written specimen.

The act of writing contains human physiological and neural pathway requirements for extremely complex functions. The tactile manipulation of the writing instrument while composing a creative message involves a myriad of brain activities. Writing combines and uses elements of speaking, reading, composing, and eye-hand coordination. It is difficult to perform other tasks while writing such as exercising, holding a conversation, and operating a computer. The series execution of writing contains advanced prioritized planning and parallel cognition. Dynamically integrating perception, motion, and cognition is an involved task requiring your full attention. Martin Lotze/University of Greifswald used a functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI, to monitor brain activity during writing. The fMRI scanners indicated many active and complex regions of the brain being utilized while writing.Many of the brain areas that affect creativity are simulated and boosted during cursive writing. Jennifer Doverspike's excellent article titled "Ten Reasons People Still Need Cursive" dated February 25, 2015 highlights and contains detailed information.In graphology creativity is defined as a mental process that brings into being or existence ideas and/or action. Four vehicles of creativity are labeled as mental, imaginative, emotional and intuitive. The mental creativity is linked to the manner of learning, thinking and reasoning. Imaginative creativity is the visualization of ideas, thoughts, concepts and images. Emotional creativity is defined as the intensity of passions and libido. Intuitive creativity is insight and awareness that inexplicably flows within an individual. These four vehicles are examined and enhanced in cursive writing.

The conditions for a projective personality test are interpretative, constructive, cathartic, constitutive, and creative. Interpretative is to generate meaningless patterns-drawing strokes. Constructive is to place known parts into patterns-writing letters, linking letters, constructing words. Cathartic is to project and release emotions- mechanism of writing. Constitutive is to impose organization upon chaotic material-maintaining sentence structure, filling in spaces with capitals, periods, baseline, starting and finishing lines. Creative is to generate a coherent message-the purpose of writing. The act of writing satisfies all of the test conditions for graphically depicting personality according to Lawrence K. Frank's grouping of projective techniques. Writing is projecting a personality description. A particular graphic stroke-structure relates to a specific behavior or underlying disposition. The test process is the systematic observation of graphic signs or written indicators. Behavior, defined here as the observable compendium of traits, is measured while the subject is unaware of the test. The subject cannot significantly alter the test procedure or the findings. A graphic indicator is an expressive movement that is the connecting link to personality. The graphic indicator is a visible sign or symbol of an invisible behavioral attribute. Mathematical and scientific principles can be applied to the graphic symbols to understand an individual. A pattern of behavior is determined from these graphic gestures and their inter-relationships.

In forensics, the routinely examined written specimen is used to identify a particular writer. When you are writing your hand and fingers are moving faster than you can consciously control them, but they are under conscious control when you draw or paint. Oriental ideograms are considered picture or symbolic writing and do not apply. The vast majority of graphometric measurements are stable from test to retest and consistent with time. Another individual cannot duplicate a person's writing rhythm. It is basically impossible to replicate an individual's pen-stroke construction and speed without detection.