1) Graphology

Background Information into graphology:

Graphology is the study and analysis of handwriting, by analysing a person's writing, a behavioural profile can be determined to gain insight into physical, mental, and emotional states of the writer. Handwriting reveals the essentials of personality and character, it can also be used as an aid in the diagnosis and of diseases of the brain and nervous system.


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 behaviour and communicates personality characteristics.




The act of handwriting uniquely fulfils 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 organisation to these ideas (sentences) in a limited area (page) conveys a conscious creative purpose (message). The physical data is recorded as a written specimen.
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.

This method of deduction can be seen in, Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows.


More background information can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphology
A book on basic handwriting analysis can be found here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Handwriting-Analysis-Complete-Basic-Book/dp/087877050X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338823021&sr=8-1

The Basic Techniques of Graphology:

The 3 Zones of handwriting: Upper, Middle and Lower:

Zonal movement takes places in the vertical dimension of writing, and therefore is the sturdy column on character. Zonal movement supports all of the horizontal and peripheral flourishes of personality like a backbone or a tree trunk. The proportions of the three zones determine the balance between the 3 major areas of ego development: the intellectual and spiritual sphere of the individual, his everyday social self and his often unconscious instinctual drives.

In the sequence of time, the upper zone represents the future, the middle zone the present and the lower zone the past. A analogy of this would be a tree, with its branches and leaves reaching into the sky, the playground of the mind and abstract thought. Its trunk coming out of the baseline earth, the area closest to the concerns of human endeavour, and the root system reaching unseen below representing energy in the area of instinctual drives. Good growth balance between branches, trunk and roots promises that our tree/writer will withstand many storms.

The head in the upper zone (referred to as UZ, for short) contains the intellect, imagination and spiritual aspirations, as well as the articulation of the moral attitudes of the writer and his conscience. In the upper zone the writer shows the degree and quality of his self-awareness.

In the formation of personality the three zones interact with each other, just as the body functions as a whole. The demands of the UZ rules of conduct try to adapt to the instinctual energies, unconscious drives and organic needs, which are stored in the unconscious and expressed in the lower zone (LZ) of the writing. The middle zone (MZ) of handwriting embodies the ego or self-conscious, social, goal-oriented part of the personality, which acts in real world of facts, events, and other people.

 

 

Slant: The Horizontal Dimension of Movement:

 Whenever you write, you are expressing your present situation, so that all writing is an instantaneous graph of that exact moment. The beginning of a message is older than its end. The beginning of a line at the left of a page is older than the end of that same line at the right. As you move away from the left side of the page, you are beginning. You are moving away from your past. As you progress to the right, you are moving toward your goal, completion.


The left of the page, left of a word, the beginning stroke-these are all placements in the past. Alternately, the right of the page, the right of a word and the ending strokes are all directions to the future. It can be seen that this left/right movement through time takes place along the baseline in the horizontal dimension. Since the baseline has already been identified in meaning with the surface of the earth, action along it implies contact with environment. Horizontal movement is a measure of external orientation and social development. Here you can observe the manner in which the writer faces life situations, his abilities to communicate and express himself emotionally, his choices of behaviour and his objectives. Along this horizontal plane, All of these aspects of personality are clearly revealed.


The angle of slant observed in a writing will tell you more about the nature of the writer's personality than any other consideration of horizontal movement. It is extremely important to recognize the differences between what an appraisal of zones tells you about the writer's inner character, and what slant tells you about his outer personality.












How to measure slant:


The slant of a writing refers to the direction of letter slope and is determind by the angle formed between the downstroke and the baseline.
Measure upper and middle zone letters to determine slant. whenever possible, use stick figures, as they are less confusing than loops. With loopy writing, take an average of the loop by measuring from the apex at the highest point of the letter to where the lines cross near the baseline. downstrokes will give you a more accurate measurement than upstrokes.

Place the slant graph over or near the writing sample you wish to measure. Locate the angle of slant that most closely approximates that of the sample. Remember to keep the baseline of the graph parallel to and on top of the baseline of the sample. The point of the arrow should be on the baseline at the base of the letter you wish to measure. Measure several upper and middle zone letters, note the corresponding numbers, and then check your measurement on the expanded graph.

A variation between two positions on the slant chart is considered a normal degree of fluctuation. With a variation of more than two positions, the slant is considered unstable. The more extreme degree of variation, the more unstable is the emotional and social expression of the writer.


When the slant never varies at all, it can be determind that there is some emotional rigidity being expressed by the writer.


After some practice measuring slant with the graph, you will be able to determine slant with just your eye.

Some key words associated with various slants: