Differences between aggressive and non aggressive students on hand test

Hand Test, a projective instrument using pictures of hand as stimulus material, has been found to be useful in differentiating between aggressive and non-aggressive persons, in several studies conducted in the West. The present investigation was carried out in order to find out if the test can differentiate between aggressive and non-aggressive children in Pakistani schools. Forty eight boys of grade nine, labelled as aggressive by their teachers, and sixty five unselected boys [non-aggressive] of the same grade were given Hand Test. The results showed significant differences on Acting Out Score and Pathological Score between the aggressive and non-aggressive subjects. No significant differences were obtained on Aggression variable. Significant differences on some other categories: Affection, Direction and Active, were also obtained although not in the expected direction. The findings suggest that the test may be useful for personality assessment in Pakistan