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 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 these test conditions for graphically depicting personality according to Lawrence K. Frank's grouping of projective techniques.

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. 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. Oriental ideograms are considered picture or symbolic writing and do not apply. When you are writing your hand and fingers are moving faster than you can consciously control them, but they are under control when you draw or paint. The 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.