Respectfully, I disagree that graphology is paranormal. I agree that it don't work, but if it did, any number of existing, well tested pscyhological theories could explain it. No paradigm shift required (unlike with proving esp, numerollogy, astrology or any typical "paranormal" claims)
There's a huge literature on priming showing that things hitting our sense receptors-- even though we don't report perceiving them-- nonetheless infuence behavior.
And, there is a huge literature on how automatic cognitive and social cognitive process influence our behavior without (by definition) our intention or awareness.
That one's personality could/might influence his or her handwriting without awareness is a reasonable empirical question, that could also fit in easily with existing theories in cognitive and social psychology.
It just so happens it aint so.
Further supporting the reasonableness of asking the question-- one can significantly predict gender based on handwriting analysis. So, the hypothesis that other individual difference factors (i.e., personality) might also do this is reasonable, and within the realm of "everyday" experimental psychology.
I recall a study using the TAT where people looked at a picture and then wrote a story about what was going on. The idea was that subconsciously people would reveal their own motives and needs in the stories that they wrote. Sounds fluffy, but:
After writing the stories, people played a ring tossing game. The target / rod was in the center of the room, and they were allowed to stand as close or as far to the target as they wanted.
Those high in the need for acheivement-- as measured by the story writing-- consistently stood between 10 and 20 feet away from the target; making the toss challenging but not impossible.
Those low in the need either stood right over the target and dropped the rings, or stood so far away that performance was based on luck versus skill.
So the theory is that unconscious needs and desires can influence subsequent behavior without our awareness. I think if graphology were valid, it could be easily explained by the same theories that explain the ring tossing stuff.
JMO
B
new drkitten said:
Um, yes.
It's paranormal because it's not compatible with science as we know it. This puts it in the same camp with astrology and numerology.
And, again, this puts it in the same camp with astrology and numerology. If either of these were valid, scientists would eventually develop scientific/testable hypotheses to explain their validity, because the purpose of science is to explain valid effects.
However, in the case of astrology, numerology, or graphology, the eventual explanation would almost certainly involve a radical restructuring of "science as we know it," because science as we currently know it doesn't have any accepted theories lying around to explain them. If any of these three were valid, we'd have to build a new theory, essentially from the ground up.
So scientists could build a theory of how astrology works, but they don't, because they don't see a need. Absent a demonstration that it works, there's no need to explain something that isn't there.
By contrast, we know a lot, independently, about the autonomic nervous system and how it works. So we have a good theory about how polygraphs should work or might be able to work, even though they don't.
The difference between the paranormal and the normal is not whether or not it works. Lots of "normal" stuff doesn't work (although almost by definition, none of the paranormal stuff does). But the normal stuff that doesn't work at least has a legitimate, accepted explanation for the process by which it should work. There is no legitimate explanation for the process by which graphology should work, because by all our scientific theories and observations, it shouldn't.
