Differences between aggressive and non aggressive students on hand test

ABSTRACT

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