Erin Wood

Color is elegant. Color is dramatic. It is exciting, captivating, defiant and absolutely necessary in the aesthetically devoted world in which we thrive. There are, however, ways in which color affects and interacts with us of which we may not be actively aware. Let us consider a psychological perspective, shall we? There are infinite ways in which color is an intrinsic and motivational facet of our psyche – both individually and as a population. From the clinical psychology and psychiatric arenas, there are fascinating methods with which to view what various colors and lights mean to us, and how that differs from childhood, to adulthood, to the geriatric stages. Everyday we are subject to the behind-the-scene workings of industrial, human management sectors, as well as manufacturing and marketing angles.

Does anyone remember that hysterical scene from the 1990’s film, "Joe Vs. the Volcano"? Tom Hanks plays "Joe," a disgruntled and pathetically under appreciated paper-pusher in the bowels, (no pun intended!) of an anal probe factory. His office environment is deep underground, barren and completely white- concrete blocks, ceiling tiles, tortuous florescent lights, and, of course, pile upon pile of paper- all stark white. One morning, poor Joe could not take anymore and suffered a mental breakdown. To an unsuspecting but never-the-less unimpressed group of coworkers, he trembles and screams at the top of his lungs, "These lights are sucking the juice out of my eyeballs!!!" Although humorous, this sad situation is one too many people deal with on a daily basis.

In the 1940’s Dr. Hollwich and team started a three-decade performance of experiments to evaluate the effects of strong artificial light with considerable deviation compared to minimal deviation on healthy individuals. People who were exposed to high levels of artificial light produced stressful levels of the growth and hormone-producing hormone, ACTH. They also showed above average amounts of the stress hormone, cortisol. "Hollwich concluded that this explains the agitated mental and physical behavior of children who stay in school the whole day and are subjected to artificial illumination that deviates strongly from daylight."

So, what is taking place here is that when people are exposed to extremely high levels of artificial light, they experience a physiological response. Biologically they produce excessive levels of hormones that are associated with people in chronic high-stress situations, such as mourning, or depression, or even patients of fatal diseases. If you combine this with a white environment, (or tones near it, it turns out,) the situation is a recipe for disaster. "As early as 1947, Louis Cheskin wrote: ‘White walls as we know, are an optical strain and a psychological hazard.’"

There is a specific, however not unique, case of a clinically depressed woman who loses her ability to see color whenever her condition reoccurs. It may help to explain this by designating how colors change our moods, behaviors, physical and mental well being. Logically, then, it stands to say that an unhealthy person may be especially prone to experiencing either heightened or depressed sensual perceptions. Think about it: when we are feeling above average, and stop to smell the roses, do they not smell sweeter than normal? The same concept, and vice versa, hold true with people suffering from psychological disorders.

Color perception and its psychological implications are encompassed among all stages of life development – especially childhood. As was mentioned in lecture, children respond to color even before they respond to shape. The importance of this is utilized when analyzing children’s drawings for the sake of clinical psychology. Color allows interpreters to access a completely different insight into personality because of color’s close relationship with emotion.

There are several different schematics used to determine people’s utilization of specific color(s). Following are two. The first was created in 1969 by Luscher, and is more focused on psychological aspects. The second is a more current model, put together by Cooper Marketing Group, Inc., and although is has some psychological perspective, it also incorporates current social and professional tendancies.

As you can see, many similarities, but also many differences, most likely due to the generations between these color maps.

As people wan into their "golden years," colors tend to mean different things. There are regular instances of nostalgia stemming from decades of memories, and many times people do not like giving up the items that current young folks may consider out-of-style, like shag orange carpets, and light blue polyester blazers with huge brass buttons. It is important to mention this biological factor in the geriatric area of color perception, and that is that nature dims eyesight over time. This means that whether or not someone may desire to continue to have sharp visual sensation, they cannot, at least so far. They are dependent on their memories for the brightness- the concentration that lit their views in the past.

Examine this excerpt from Michael Crichton’s Andromeda Strain. A terrible extraterrestrial virus has caught a ride down to earth and is killing nearly everyone it reaches. A special, elite team of scientists and doctors have been assembled to battle the alien foe, and are taken to an in ground, five-story deep secret laboratory to save the human race…

YOU ARE NOW ENTERING LEVEL I

PROCEED TO IMMUNIZATION CONTROL

This is prime example, albeit science fiction, of how certain industries utilize colors in professional environments to manipulate employees. Both this and the first scene from "Joe Vs. the Volcano" exhibit how restrictive programs can be to support a certain order or a desired attitude.

This can be readily observed among non-fiction institutions of controlled environments, such as hospitals, prisons, and the military. Not only the colors of the walls, but even the uniforms are tightly controlled – aptly keeping everyone and thing "uniform." The strict color palates employed are depended upon to create environments that reduce the ever-present stress and promote predictable behavior. They also work to create an environment that nullifies attempts at individualism- which is not a positive aspect in large institutions that rely on anonymity for maximum production and minimum interruption.

Marketing can be just as tricky to navigate. Imagine this scenario: a housekeeper asks the lady of the house to please return to purchasing the blue window cleaner. Apparently, the pink window cleaner she had recently bought was leaving streaks. The housekeeper believed the pink bottle did not have the same "anti-streaking" capabilities as the original blue type. When the woman was at the store, she curiously compared the two bottles, and low and behold, they actually had identical "anti-streaking" components. This is a successful case of marketing based on color-bias.

As you can see, color is an ever-present personality among each of us, everyday of our lives. We have an intrinsic partnership with color and its sibling, light. Withour both, or either, our world and perception of it would be entirely different, and I dare say, morbid. Manlio Brusatin, author of A History of Colors, writes this: "The field of colors is a territory with ragged borders located somewhere between the sciences and the arts, between physics and psychology, a land whose configuration constitutes a border between these two diverse cultures."

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