Abstract
A person's daily life is permeated by various mood states and handwriting is a necessary habitual skill. The analysis of handwriting has two branches: forensic handwriting examination (FHE) and graphology, which are commonly mixed up by the public. The objective of this review was to assess the effects of mood states on healthy adults’ handwriting through FHE and graphology. A literature search was conducted in the following electronic databases: Google Scholar; PubMed; IEEE Xplore; SpringerLink; SAGE Journals; and Wiley Online Library. Publications were then selected in a 2-stage process. The key search terms included: “handwriting AND mood AND adult AND (forensic OR graphology)”. The literature search yielded 20 publications, but only 8 available full-text articles were identified. Five articles were examined through FHE while the remaining were of graphology. Two FHE articles supported the effect of physical stress (fatigue) while two other articles supported the effect of different emotional stressors. Three graphology articles supported the effect of various emotional stress while no article was found for physical stress (fatigue). This review allowed for a clearer view on the differentiation between FHE and graphology. More research (with large samples) concerning the effect of other mood states on adult handwriting, is needed.
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