The predictive validity of graphological inferences: A meta-analytic approach (original) (raw)
Related papers
Journal of Applied Psychology, 1986
Two empirical studies for testing the validity of graphological predictions are reported. In the first, the graphologists rated bank employees on several job relevant traits, based on handwritten biographies. The scripts were also rated on the same traits by a clinical psychologist with no knowledge of graphology. The criterion was the ratings on the same traits by the employees' supervisors. The graphologists' and the clinician's correlations with the criterion were typically between 0.2 and 0.3. To test whether these validities might be attributable to the scripts' content, we developed a third method of prediction. The information in the texts (e.g., education) was systematically extracted and combined in a linear model. This model outperformed the human judges. In the second study, graphologists were asked only to judge the profession, out of 8 possibilities, of 40 successful professionals. This was done on the basis of rich (e.g., containing numbers and Latin script as well as Hebrew text), though uniform, scripts. The graphologists did not perform significantly better than a chance model.
Graphology as a human resources selection tool in the organisations
Ekonomski pogledi
The graphology is a quasi-science (pseudo-science). It is considered to be one of the unconventional methods for human resources selection in the organizations. The graphologists believe that on the base of the handwriting and on the written material a psychologic personal's profile can be made.With the graphological analyses numerous features of the handwriting can be interpreted such as: the initial and final of one word' emphasis, correctness and readability of the words, letter' s form, letter's size, hand pressure on the paper, distance between the lines, writings course and other. This method is not scientifically approved, although it is used in the organizations in a lot of West European countries and in USA as a tool for selection of human resources. In the most of the announces for vacancies the candidates are required to fulfill the application forms in hand.
How Widespread is Graphology in Personnel Selection Practice? A case study of a job market myth
International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 2009
Graphology is allegedly widely used in personnel selection in Europe. This is a myth: a widespread but false belief. We explored this myth in five studies. Study 1 established that job ads rarely require handwritten letters. Study 2 showed that handwritten letters serve multiple purposes but are seldom used for handwriting analysis. In Study 3, job market actors overestimated the frequency with which handwritten letters are subjected to graphological analysis. In Study 4, we showed experimentally that people expect graphology to be used when job ads require submission of a handwritten letter. Study 5 showed that advice books may transmit the myth. The myth may foster tolerant attitudes toward graphology, thereby facilitating its persistence in selection practice.
Graphology and Marketing Research: A Pilot Experiment in Validity and Inter-Judge Reliability
Journal of Marketing, 1971
Researchers have pointed out the possible utility of handwriting analysis in revealing personality traits that could be useful in various business problems such as credit screening, personnel selection, and buying behavior. The authors examine the ability of professional graphologists to predict subjects' self-rankings of personality traits. The study indicates both low-predictive ability and low inter-judge reliabilities across the predictions that are made.
Graph use in psychology and other sciences
Behavioural processes, 2001
Since the early 19th century, graphs have been recognised as an effective method of analysing and representing scientific data. However, levels of graph use have varied widely since then, partly due to increasing reliance on inferential statistics in some fields. Recent studies indicate that graph use is closely related to the 'hardness' of scientific disciplines, and that this finding holds for journal articles and textbooks across the subfields of psychology. In the area of animal behaviour, journals devote about one-sixth of their page space to graphs, a level of graph use approximating that of biology and physics. Implications for the training of scientists in the use of visual displays are considered.
The predictive validity of graphological inferences: A meta-analytic approach* 1
Personality and Individual Differences, 1989
This study examined the role of memory for crime details in detecting concealed information using the electrodermal measure, Symptom Validity Test, and Number Guessing Test. Participants were randomly assigned to three groups: guilty, who committed a mock theft; informed-innocents, who were exposed to crime-relevant items; and uninformedinnocents, who had no crime-relevant information. Participants were tested immediately or 1 week later. Results showed (a) all tests detected the guilty in the immediate condition, and combining the tests improved detection efficiency; (b) tests' efficiency declined in the delayed condition, mainly for peripheral details; (c) no distinction between guilty and informed innocents was possible in the immediate, yet some distinction emerged in the delayed condition. These findings suggest that, while time delay may somewhat reduce the ability to detect the guilty, it also diminishes the danger of accusing informed-innocents.
Graphology and psychiatric diagnosis: Is the writing on the wall?
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, 2012
Objective:To review the role of handwriting analysis in psychiatry.Method:Case-report and review of key papers.Results:M, a 27-year-old man, presented with incoherent speech, palilalia, logoclonia, incongruous affect, paranoid delusions and auditory hallucinations. M was diagnosed with schizophrenia and cannabis misuse, complicated by speech and language difficulties. M spent long periods writing on pieces of paper; towards the start of his admission, his writing was unintelligible but became more intelligible as his psychosis resolved. M's handwriting demonstrates clinical features of psychosis (e.g. clang associations) and graphological abnormalities associated with schizophrenia in the literature (rigidity in letter-formation, mechanical expressions, and tendency toward over-use of straight lines).Conclusion:Analysis of handwriting is likely to play a limited role in psychiatric diagnosis but may prove useful in monitoring clinical improvement in certain patients.
2021
In this article I examine how psychologists, amateurs and actors in the police and in juridical fields positioned themselves in the 1920s and 1930s on the scientific nature of graphology. Graphology, the study of the character from handwriting, was linked with the hope of providing reliable methods for the investigation of psychological states and dispositions. The essay argues that on an epistemic level two different models have been represented to support the scientific nature of graphology: for one thing resorting to the special individual skill, the "genius" of a graphologist; or rather depersonalized techniques predominantly based on statistics. Amateur graphologists used both of these forms. On a methodological level, I argue that in order to historicize the human sciences in general, and psychology in particular, it is useful to examine the translation processes that turn everyday interpretative practices (of facial expressions, dreams, handwriting) into scientific legitimate investigative procedures. In order to investigate precisely this translation process, it is useful to look at what Thomas Gieryn calls "boundary work" at the border between scientific and non-scientific interpretation practices, for which graphology is used here as an example. It is particularly illuminating to examine how representatives of the official sciences distinguish themselves from presumed "charlatans", which is why the article focuses on court cases and the demarcation strategies used by the police against fraudulent amateur graphologists.