Diagnosis of social clients through the identification of psychic adulthood in handwriting
Introduction
In this paper, we undertook a difficult task: to justify the significance of a graphological diagnostic method for understanding the personality of social clients. On the basis of certain handwriting signs, it is possible to identify the level of the writer’s psychic adulthood (maturity). The graphological method belongs to projective methods of personality diagnosis. We will begin with a pertinent quote from the cover of E. Jablonský’s Príručka interpretácie grafologických znakov, which reads: “Grafológia je remeslo, veda a umenie. Je pomerne ľahké naučiť sa určovať väčšinu grafologických znakov, ale je veľmi ťažké ich správne pochopiť a interpretovať v konkrétnom rukopise.”
This statement captures exactly what we realized while studying graphological materials, when we were looking for a “trace” by which we could orient ourselves in findings associated with graphological signs expressing a psychically mature (developed) person. Based on graphological literature and our practical experience in handwriting expertise and graphology, we selected and compiled for readers handwriting signs that indicate psychic adulthood (maturity) in the writer.
Outline of individuality and psychic adulthood (maturity)
We outline the aspects of individuality and the concept of psychic adulthood, which we have presented in several journal articles since 2008 and in monographs (Preventívna sociálna práca - Edukačná paradigma v sociálnej práci, 2013; Edukačná sociálna práca, 2014). We defined individuality as a psychically mature person who is motivated by inner drives to personal personality development and to the realization of their own individual potential, that is, to personally and socially positive self-realization. That means they actively engage in developing their inherited and innate dispositions to the fullest and highest degree in a positive sense, in order to achieve a high level of human being. Such a personality gradually and through their positive motivation and life initiative becomes aware of their personal possibilities and limits, and consciously integrates them into their personality traits, behavioral manifestations, and actions. They consciously cultivate and protect their:
- Identity.
- Autonomy.
- Individual freedom of thinking, feeling, and acting with awareness of personal responsibility.
- Creative mastery over their life, specifically communication, social relationships, and life tasks.
We present these aspects of individuality because we consider them the foundation for people to be able to adapt and integrate into the following two realities:
- As human beings, people adapt and integrate by actualizing their spiritual, psychic, bodily, and psychosocial potential throughout personal history and the life path. Psychically they adapt and psychically integrate into life on Earth according to their own dispositions and life possibilities under the influence of the environment.
- As human beings, people have diverse concrete tasks arising from their status in social groups, that is, they are led by circumstances to adapt to the social environment, or to socially adapt and socially integrate into the characteristic spiritual, cultural, social, natural, and material whole and social context.
Psychic adulthood, that is, psychosocial maturity, is visible in life manifestations where one can recognize the degree of:
- bodily maturity;
- psychic maturity, that is, intellectual, emotional, and intuitive maturity;
- spiritual and moral maturity;
- conative maturity, that is, creative decision-making and action;
- social maturity, that is, prosocial relationships, communication, and actions.
Manifestations of a person’s psychic adulthood and their reflection in handwriting
Manifestations of a person’s psychic adulthood and their reflection in that person’s handwriting can be identified on the basis of two criteria: the psychological criterion, which concerns personality psychic normality, and the social criterion, which concerns behavior (expression) and action (acts, deeds) of the person within diverse types of social groups (small, medium, and large groups).
Let us once again repeat the traits of a psychically mature person, since they relate to creating a graphological characterization based on identification of such a person’s handwriting signs. A psychically mature person is characterized by these traits: they have a developed identity, are psychologically autonomous, are free in decision-making, are creative, are psychically integrated, are socially integrated, and prosocial action is typical for them. A psychologically and socially mature person proactively applies their individual potential in shaping their own life path and personal history, through self-directed learning.
A psychically mature person becomes a developed human being and through their own effort enhances their individual potential and broadens self-awareness. They mature continually. Therefore, they also have apparently contradictory personality traits. Such a person can be friendly and cooperative while also being individualistic; they can be extroverted in contact with others and at the same time introverted in emotional experiencing, and so on.
The handwriting of each person is unique and unrepeatable, because it reflects the uniqueness and irreproducibility of the writer’s personality. In creating a general graphological characterization, we approach it with awareness that it is designed for didactic purposes and contains a directional description of handwriting signs, and only at a general level of graphological analysis.
When it comes to professional assessment of a specific writer’s handwriting for diagnostic purposes, graphological analysis should feature precise analysis of handwriting features and synthesis of findings, and finally evaluation in the form of a graphological opinion. To diagnose and interpret the uniqueness of a specific person’s handwriting in a professional report requires specialized training in the psychology of writing, that is, graphology, or, for forensic needs, in the discipline of handwriting expertise. This work is carried out by experts in handwriting, such as trained graphologists and document examiners.
Our experience with statistical averaging of measured handwriting-feature values and subsequent interpretation convinced us that these results indicate the frequency of occurrence of certain graphological variables in writing. However, from what is visible to the eye as isolated, unique strokes and shapes, one cannot automatically infer a characteristic of the unique and complex system called human personality (that is, the nature, character, behavior, or actions of a specific person).
We will attempt to create a picture of handwriting that captures the nature of psychically mature persons. In this paper, however, we consider it realistic to acquaint readers only with possible handwriting signs that reflect a psychically mature (developed) person. Handwritings of psychically mature people can be a topic for further research, where correct graphological findings should be compared with findings obtained through other personality diagnostic methods.
Some handwriting signs that express the writer’s psychic adulthood
We present the occurrence of handwriting signs based on which it is possible to identify a person’s psychic adulthood.
First question: How does psychic adaptation and psychic integration of the writer’s personality appear in handwriting? Hypothesis 1: We assume that psychic adaptation and psychic integration appear as psychic stability. The basis of psychic stability, in our view, consists of: self-esteem, contentment, optimism, calmness, relaxation, self-confidence, sense of health, relative autonomy—independence from people, environmental prompts, life situations, and circumstances. Personality stability is expressed in writing by J. Kulka (1991, p. 138) through these graphological signs: A firm, homogeneous, and sometimes sharp line, regular and rhythmic pressure, rightward slant, medium values of the height of the middle zone, smaller differences in lengths, moderate right slant or verticality, tasteful and purposeful simplification of letter forms, carefully placed diacritical marks, appropriate size of initial and final strokes, fluent handwriting, garland ligature, smaller spaces between words, moderate spacing between lines, straight line progression, high quality and originality of handwriting, good organization of handwriting, regular and symmetrical writing.
E. Jablonský (2005, p.254) writes that “a stable person is calm, judicious, consistent, with balanced judgment and preferred evaluation, relaxed, relatively independent from surroundings, and able to focus better.” According to the same author (p.254), stability is expressed in handwriting by these signs: harmonic and balanced writing, steady pressure, balanced middle zone and width, no pronounced extreme length differences, good segmenting, even slant, straight lines, well-developed connecting forms, signature not deviating from the overall character of the handwriting, and no missing terminal strokes.
We were also interested in additional handwriting signs by which a writer’s personal maturity appears (E. Jablonský, 2005, p. 255). According to E. Jablonský, personal maturity is reflected in these signs: a tendency toward simplification of forms, regular pressure, stable letter size, balanced lengths, natural and regular rhythm of writing, well segmented handwriting with appropriate distance between lines and words, and handwriting and signature of the same nature. Such handwriting seems to characterize a person aware of their self, the value of their own person, positive self-appraisal, and self-confidence.
Second question: How does social adaptation and social integration of the writer’s personality appear in handwriting? Hypothesis 2: We assume that social adaptation and social integration of the writer’s personality appear in personality sociability. The basis of personality sociability, in our view, consists of: openness of personality, empathy, optimal communication, ability to create and maintain interpersonal and human relationships, adapting and integrating into social groups, social perception of other persons, prosocial behavior and action. We understand sociability as the ability for creative reproduction of social experience.
Based on our own research on handwriting signs of sociability (M. Machalová, 1993), we selected handwriting signs that we investigated in the handwriting of teachers participating in retraining studies and university students of psychology. We graphologically assessed the writing, statistically processed the occurrence of handwriting signs, and interpreted the results. We concluded that personality sociability can be identified from the following handwriting signs:
Spatial signs that express personality demands on the social environment and its surroundings—the height of the middle zone, size and fullness of writing, primary width (letter width), secondary width (distance between letters), tertiary width (distance between words), quaternary width (line spacing) and line progression, margins (left, right, upper, lower).
Directional signs that express a person’s inclination and orientation in communication, interpersonal, and relational dynamics—slant of writing, direction of strokes, and ligature of letters.
Graphology experts identified personality sociability through extroversion by the following handwriting signs (M. Kučera, 1991; D. Steinhäuselová, 1990; J. Kulka, 1991): rightward strokes, right slant, large middle zone, large length differences, large primary width, large secondary width, full handwriting, leading diacritics, high writing fluency, garlands and their combination with angular garlands, smaller spaces between words, rising lines, wide margins, and rapid writing.
To sociability and social integration also contribute traits such as affiliation, that is, friendliness—love for one’s neighbor—and cooperativeness, that is, the ability to cooperate.
In handwriting, affiliation—a friendly disposition—is expressed as follows (J. Kulka, 1991; D. Steinhäuselová, 1990, and other authors): rightward strokes, medium height of the middle zone, predominance of upper extensions, right slant of writing, large primary width of writing, small secondary width of writing, fullness of shapes, high writing fluency, garland ligature of letters, readable writing, segmentation of writing, regular spatial organization of writing.
Cooperativeness of the writer, which is one of the features of behavior and action in psychically mature ((developed)) persons, can be identified by the following handwriting signs: medium-sized writing (in the middle zone), rightward strokes, right slant, larger primary width of writing (width of letters), smaller secondary width of writing (distance between letters), full oval forms in writing, continuous and fluent writing, linkage of letters mainly garland and mixed (garland, arc, angular garland).
Third question: How does the writer’s personality autonomy appear in handwriting? Hypothesis 3: We assume that the writer’s personality autonomy appears in personal independence, and in creative management of life tasks and situations.
According to qualitative studies in humanistic psychology, a psychically mature person is a personality with firm will, developed values, attitudes, and opinions. Humanistic psychologists characterize a psychically mature (psychically developed, mature) personality by its agency and relentless progress in activities that this person considers important for fulfilling their life mission. For these psychologists, independence of personality and creativity in handling life tasks and situations are characteristic capabilities.
Independence of personality, as a complex capability including thinking, feeling, evaluating, behavior, and action, is a prerequisite for and also a result of the formation of relative personality autonomy. We refer to relative autonomy because a person has to adapt to some degree to the conditions of life in the society of which they are a part. Independence is reflected in independent judgment by the personality, in well-formed opinions, attitudes, and value orientation, and also in resilience of personality against open or hidden forms of manipulation by other people and the social environment. Important characteristics of a creative personality include, besides independence, self-control, ability to assert oneself, social sensitivity, spontaneity, motivation, and engagement.
Creativity of personality in handwriting appears in the following writing signs: dynamic and rapid writing, stronger pressure, relaxed and emphasized upper and lower extenders, large middle zone, wide letters, full loop and oval forms, original forms of letters and strokes, emphasized lead-in and terminal strokes, spatial segmentation of writing, predominance of thread-like ligature, and large margins. The overall character of the writing is dynamic and original.
Personality independence appears primarily as intellectual acuity, initiative, courage, decisiveness, and clear approach. It is expressed in handwriting through the following signs (signs selected from E. Jablonský’s 2005 publication): vertical slant, firm and strong pressure, rising lines, dynamic shape of writing, rightward writing, wide writing, simplified forms of letters and strokes, large distances between words, large line spacing, clearly segmented handwriting, and spatial organization.
Conclusion
The purpose of the paper was to inform readers about the possibility of identifying the psychic adulthood of the personality of social clients through psychological diagnosis by a graphological method. Reaching psychic adulthood (psychic maturity) for social clients is becoming an important issue in their lives. We will express this in the words of thinker Osho (2003, pp. 191, 194, 195): “Using your intelligence fully is the beginning of maturity... Maturation is a process that does not end. It has no fixed point, not even a center... it goes on and on. The universe is infinite. And the possibilities of your maturation are equally infinite... Do not forget that you are not some kind of shell. You are the content. Form changes, but your being remains the same. And it continually grows, matures, and becomes richer.”
Author: Prof. PhDr. Mária Machalová, CSc. References:
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