Handprints of the Mind: Decoding Personality Traits and Handwritings.

CONTEXT: Handwriting analysis is a unique, specialized and emerging scientific process that has been carried out and applied for centuries now. However, its reliability and effectiveness as a method of assessing personality and behavior is not established and is still a debatable issue. The present paper aimed to examine the possibility of a correlation between clinical diagnosis and graphological analysis and to explore the key links between the underlying personality traits and its manifestations in handwriting among children.

AIM: The aim was to study the possibility of a correlation between clinical diagnosis and graphological analysis.

OBJECTIVES: To explore the key links between the underlying personality traits and its manifestations in handwriting among children. To study the possibility of using Graphotherapy as a remedial tool in aid of teaching/learning techniques and behavior modifications.

HYPOTHESIS: There are no significant and concrete differences between the psychodiagnostic assessment of personality through Children's Personality Questionnaire (CPQ) and handwriting analysis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: N = 60, age group = 8-12 years.

TOOLS: CPQ - a 16 personality factor scale and a semi-structured proforma. Simple random sampling technique was used.

RESULTS: The P values for the study sample were found to be greater than 0.05 at 5% level of significance to all the 14 dimensions of personality hence going in line with the null hypothesis that states "there are no significant and concrete differences between the psychodiagnostic assessment of Personality through CPQ and handwriting analysis." Graphologists were thoroughly trained to interpret on the same 14 dimensions of personality as that of CPQ, most samples were analyzed to have a lying loop, a trait, which might also be attributed to the difference found in Trait-H, further asserting the subjective limitations of most psychological tests.