Jordyn Neff
Graphology
July 8th 2023
Graphology was a term I was unfamiliar with until today. Is it reasonable to make assumptions about someone's personality based on their handwriting? The slides showed that people have different handwriting based on their personalities, but the traits they described seem like moods rather than personality traits. Different handwriting based on mood makes sense to me, but handwriting depending on personality does not.
I have noticed while writing letters to my boyfriend who is in the Navy, that if I'm excited my handwriting is messier. If I am concentrating on what I'm writing then it is neater. When my mind is racing the letters and words are closer together, and if I'm calm they are almost perfectly spaced. If you compare four letters depending on my moods, they will all have different handwriting. But that doesn't mean that my personality changes every time I write a letter. It was also interesting to me that they used handwriting to make personnel decisions. To me, handwriting is not a great way to make decisions and that is why they resulted in financial losses when they used this as a selection method.
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Hi Jordyn! I definitely agree with you that handwriting changes depending on our moods and even the circumstances or environments we are in. There are times where we make an effort to write neatly because it may be important versus having to quickly make a note of something. No matter the circumstance, we are still the same person with the same personality. I think incorporating emotion into this is true too. Our emotions can dictate the amount of effort we may put into writing something.
ReplyDeleteHi Jordyn! I also agree that handwriting is dependent on the factors that surround us as individuals. My handwriting becomes different if I'm rushing, taking notes, using a specific type of writing utensil than what I'm used to, or simply taking my time so my handwriting can look neat. I don't think using handwriting is a great way to make decisions especially when it comes to hiring people. It seems like a random factor to take into consideration because that cannot determine the work ethic of the individual. It also cannot determine if the employee will be an effective worker especially if there is no writing involved in overall job. However, I think graphology could be used for a different purpose such as a warning sign if the individual is acting differently. I watched the movie, Beautiful Boy, for my Addictions course and there was a scene where the dad reads his son's journal and he sees the progression of his handwriting getting significantly worse. This was an indication that something that his son was using drugs again and there were negative effects from it. It would be obvious that if someone's handwriting was different, it would be a sign that something is up, but I think graphology could be used for something that's related in that field. It would probably be a lot better than using it to determine the personality of an individual.
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