Studies of the relationship of handwriting to personality.

The problem of the relationship of handwriting to personality is a complex one. Before one can determine whether any relationship exists between handwriting and personality, reliable and valid methods for measuring handwriting and for measuring personality must be found. The purpose of the present paper is to review briefly some previous studies and to report two experiments by the writer on this subject, placing particular emphasis on the various methodologies, which have been employed. The various approaches to quantifying or appraising handwriting, which have been, used in the past generally fall into two categories, the intuitive or wholistic approach and the analytical approach. Observing such attributes of handwriting as form and style makes the intuitive evaluation of handwriting. The chief disadvantage of evaluating handwriting by the intuitive method is the great difficulty of objectifying intuitive methods. Generally speaking, intuitive methods are inherently subjective, and any attempt to objectify them reduces to the analytical method. However, one approach in which the psychologist with some success has used the intuitive method is the matching method.