FREE ESSAY ON "THE EFFECTS OF COLOR ON PERSONALITY AND RELATIONSHIPS "

"THE EFFECTS OF COLOR ON PERSONALITY AND RELATIONSHIPS "

"The Effects of Color on Personality and Relationships "
Colorado Christian University
When dealing with interpersonal relationships people's personalities are a large part of
how people get along. When you meet a new person you may say that you "hit it off" or
that "you just clicked"; this is due to how each other's personalities coincide with one
another's. People's personalities are impacted by there surroundings. This paper will
discuss how color affects people's moods and personalities. All people are affected by
their surroundings. Emily Landen after a pilgrimage to several third world countries
stated, "the children were so malnourished that it made me physically ill to continue to
be around them everyday." This is just a brief example of how one's surroundings can
affect not only a person's psychological health but their physical health as well. It is
the findings of this author that subtle things like color can affect a person's
personality. At times in our busy lives it is sometimes easy to overlook some of the
little things that may cause influence on how we interact with our wives and children.
After much consideration value was found for the argument that there are influences on us
daily by the colors that we surround our selves with. Interesting to thing that the color
that we paint our rooms may influence whether or not we have a good day at work or
whether or not we are in a great mood when we get home. 
The first known studies of color were done in ancient Greece by Aristotle, theorized that
color existed in the form of rays sent down from the heavens by God. His theory was not
disputed until the Renaissance when Aguilonius and Sigfrid Forsius developed more
sophisticated color systems. Aguilonius's system was the first attempt at defining all
colors and was based on his observations of the changing color of the sky from dawn to
dusk
The world is full of beautiful colors. Colors have subtle effects on our moods everyday.
Psychologists have long since theorized that people's preferences for color and color
mixes have deep physiological affects on you mood or feeling. In fact, research does
suggest that color can affect your being and that your choice of color or combinations of
color is significant to your mood. An example of this is that healthy people will prefer
colors and color mixtures that reflect their health both physically and mentally.
Furthermore, your color preferences are not necessarily fixed and that they will vary
even within a given day depending on your mood. 
An evaluation of what each color must be made. The uses of color have spanned many area.
Color has been used for years in medical treatments around the world. Before we can
discuss how these colors affect us we must first examine what each color represents
independently. 
Red is the color of energy, vitality and power. It is used for burning out cancer, drying
up weeping sores or wounds, etc.; it will warm cold areas to reduce pain. Red is a
powerful healing agent for healing diseases of the blood and circulation. It will help
with depression. Red is not to be used on people with high blood pressure or anxiety. If
you stay under the red ray too long or are exposed to red for a considerable time it will
make you very agitated or even aggressive.
Orange is also a color of energy. It is used to increase immunity, to increase sexual
potency, to help in all digestive ailments, chest and kidney diseases. Orange will have a
gentle warming effect if used lightly. Orange, like red should not be used for too long.
It is not a good color for nervy people or people easily agitated.
Yellow is the color of intellect and it is used for mental stimulation, it will help you
think quicker. It is good for clearing a foggy head. To help cure dermatitis and other
skin problems and again it must be used carefully because it is very stimulating and it
could cause exhaustion and depression.
Green is the color of harmony and balance. It is good for tired nerves and it helps with
the heart area. It will balance the emotions and bring about a feeling of calmness. Green
is a good general healing color because it stimulates growth so it is good for helping
heal broken bones, regrowth of tissue of all kinds. Green is a good color for pregnant
women to help create an atmosphere of serenity and calm. Too much green may create more
negative energy if there is some already present in the person being treated.
Blue is the color of truth, serenity and harmony, by helping to soothe the mind. Blue is
good for cooling, calming, reconstructing and protecting. Blue will help feverish
conditions, it will help stop bleeding and it will help with nervous irritations. It is
very good for burns. Too much blue could leave you cold, depressed and sorrowful.
Indigo is the higher aspect of blue, so it will have all the attributes of blue plus it
is very good for the head. It will clear a congested head to allow a clearer path for the
conscious to the spiritual self. It is used for the diseases of the ears, nose and eyes.
Plus it is very good for sinus. Indigo is a good astringent and it is a good purifier.
Too much indigo could give you a headache and it could make you very drowsy.
Purple is also a color that will connect you with your spiritual self. It is good for
mental and nervous problems. It will assist very well with rheumatism and epilepsy. Helps
with pain, is used in deep tissue work and helps heal the bones. Too much purple and you
don't tend to live in this world.
Lavender is the color of equilibrium, and it helps with spiritual healing. It is used as
a tranquillizer and it will aid sleep. It is a color of replenishing and rebuilding. It
is like a tonic for the body. Too much will make you very tired and disoriented.
White is the color of purity. It will purify the body on the highest levels. It is the
highest charging field to bring peace and comfort at the highest level. White is the best
reliever of pain.
Silver is the color of peace and persistence. It is the major purging color so it is very
good for removing unwanted diseases and troubles from the body. It is best for cancer of
tissue and blood.
Gold is the strongest color to help cure all illness. It is so strong that many people
are not able to tolerate it, so people have to be conditioned to gold over a period of
time. Gold strengthens all fields of the body and spirit.
Black: is a color that is not used very often but it will help bring a patient to a state
of grace. It will help them reach the silence and the peace of God.
For example, women are more aware of color and prefer red to blue while men prefer blue
to red. Elderly people have a significant preference for light colors over darker ones.
People with schizophrenia tend to prefer neutral colors such as white, black, brown, and
gray. People with bipolar disorder and mentally healthy individuals tend to prefer
chromatic hues such as red, yellow, green and blue.
Red and yellow aren't the only warm colors; nor are blue and green the only cool ones.
There are warm and cool versions of all colors. It depends on what other hues a color
contains. Green with more blue in it will seem cooler than a green with more yellow.
Often, more might be just a few drops of a cool or warm color. Nowhere can this be better
seen that in the great variety of white paints. Cool whites have the slightest bluish or
purplish cast, while warm whites might carry a tinge of pink, yellow, red, or orange.
These little differences in quantity can make a big difference in the way a color is
perceived.
The definition of color is different depending on the culture that a person lives in.
What may indicate danger in our culture may indicate extreme joy in another culture. I
have found in my research that many colors have different meanings in different places. 
In broad way hues in the red area of the color wheel are called ?warm, O while those in
the blue and green range are referred to as ?cool. O These terms are relative rather than
absolute. Faber Birren defines this commonalty of the colors of the spectrum by
associating each with two moods. The warm colors are active and exciting such as a red
and its neighboring hues. The cool colors, which are passive and calming, are blue,
violet and green. Likewise, light colors are active, while deep colors are likely to be
passive. Modern researchers in Japan put their finger on this point precisely. For
example, Choku Akashi (1986) demonstrates a number of his research results, which imply
that red is often felt to be active and may be connected in some circumstances with
aggressive. In contrast to the warm colors, the cool colors are inactive or passive (see
figure-2.) Faber Birren said ?the rather strong observation is to be made that division
of the spectrum into warm and cool colors holds very evident and simple meaning with
reference to human personality. Indeed, though the conclusion may be largely empirical,
warmth and coolness in color are dynamic qualities, warmth-signifying contact with
environment, coolness signifying withdrawal into oneself. In conclusion, emotionally the
red is exciting the blue is subduing. Physically and physiologically, the same sort of
complementation exists. Red colors tend to increase bodily tension, to stimulate the
autonomic nervous system, but green and blue colors release tension and have a lesser
physiological effect. It is to be granted, of course, that direct connections exist
between the brain and the body and that reactions take place independently of thought or
deliberation.
As with everything else the interpretation of color is dependent upon the culture in
which someone is raised. There are many things in the world that is like this. In one
culture a woman is thought of as more beautiful the more she weighs, however in the
American culture there is much pressure on women to be thin. There are many examples
related to men as well. One such example comes from the village of Zumbadia. Men are
expected to paint their bodies with the blood of the animals that they kill. The more
blood they have on their bodies when they return from a hunt the more respected they are.
In America is a man were to come back from hunting covered in blood he would most likely
be arrested and put into jail.
From the colors on different countries flags you can see what colors are important to for
each country pride. In America red, white, and blue have a certain type of significance.
When a person wears these colors here they may feel a certain sense of internal pride.
Proud of the nation in which they live and proud of how much our forefathers have
accomplished.
To illustrate the difference of how color is viewed between cultures I have inserted the
following table:
Color by Geography
Color Western Europe & USA China Japan Middle East
Danger, Anger, Stop Joy, Festive Occasions Anger, Danger Danger, Evil
Caution, Cowardice Honor, Royalty Grace, Nobility, Childish, Gaiety Happiness,
Prosperity
Sexual Arousal, Safe, Sour, Go Youth, Growth Future, Youth, Energy Fertility, Strength
Purity, Virtue Mourning, Humility Death, Mourning Purity, Mourning
Masculinity, Calm, Authority Strength, Power Villainy 
Death, Evil Evil Evil Mystery, Evil
This shows us that culture also plays a large part in how color affects us. 
The ancient Egyptians, Chinese, and Indians had believed in chromotherapy, or healing
with colors. In chromotherapy, red is believed to stimulate physical and mental energies,
yellow to stimulate the nerves, orange to stimulate the solar plexus and revitalize the
lungs, blue to soothe and heal organic disorders such as colds, hay fever, and liver
problems, and indigo to counteract skin problems and fevers. Most people have skeptical
opinion about color healing, however, the medical profession makes use of color in
certain treatments. For instance, premature babies with jaundice are cured by a chemical
reaction triggered by exposure to blue light for several days. The relation between blue
light and jaundice is beginning to be well understood scientifically. 
The research has shown that there is direct correlation between color and personality. In
planning the next painting of ones house they should take this data into account.
References
http://www.weprintcolor.com/moodofcolour.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/50065/psych/theories.html
http://www.cs.brown.edu/courses/cs092/VA10/HTML/ColorModels.html
http://members.fortunecity.com/decomaniac/coloreffects.html
http://www.shibuya.com/garden/colorpsycho.html
Kaiser, Susan, SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF CLOTHING : SYMBOLIC 
APPEARANCES IN CONTEXT, 1989 Burlington Press, New York.