HANDSHAKING, PERSONALITY, AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY IN PSYCHIATRIC-PATIENTS, A RELIABILITY AND CORRELATIONAL STUDY

A study of 29 psychiatric inpatients was performed to investigate the relation of handshaking variables (anatomical and physiological variab les) with demographic data, personality traits, psychosocial functioni ng, and clinical diagnoses. Two psychologists rated patients' handshak ing independently of each other according to four variables on an ordi nal scale of five steps. The interrater reliability was satisfactory. Analysis showed that the handshaking procedure may in fact give some i nformation about the personality make-up of the patients, most clearly through the relationship between low temperature and humidity of the palmar skin and social introversion, depression, and tendency towards symptom enhancement mainly in women. The handshaking procedure did not seem informative about psychosocial functioning and clinical diagnose s.