Kesina Kum Mrs. Millers Ext.

Language Arts June 8, 2011

Color Affecting Mood I.

Review of Literature When hearing the phrase color affects mood, the first thing that comes to mind is: red means angry, blue means sad, and so on. This is an occasional mishap that occurs universally. However, the true meaning of color affecting mood would be the effects of electromagnetic radiation of visible light on the behavior and mood of humans. This psychophysical (a branch in psychology that is concerned with mental and physical states) reaction does not count towards anything concerning culture, age, and gender as most would think (Colour Affects). Color has been specified for different uses ever since the ancient times in Egypt and China. It has been used as chromo therapy, also referred to light therapy which would increase or decrease metabolic activity and healing using certain colors like: red; yellow; orange; blue and indigo (Kosednar). For example, the color red was used to stimulate the body and mind to increase circulation. Whats more, healing colors did, to some extent, open the world to how our emotions react to different colors. Further research in color and mood suggests that a colors wavelength could also be a possible factor to influence your feeling. Investigations in this hypothesis have concluded that colors with longer wavelengths (warm colors) excite us whilst colors with shorter wavelengths (cool colors) seem to relax us (Kosednar). In addition to that

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statement, the variation in wavelengths has come to accentuate certain moods or feelings we have. The main points in this research successfully negotiate that the colors with the longer wavelengths (such as red and yellow) promote stimulating in the sbody and mind as well for the colors situated in the middle of the visible light spectrum (such as blue and green) give a more calm, indifferent feeling. In conclusion, researchers are still looking to answer questions about how we can improve our knowledge on how colors have an effect on us. In the meanwhile, the way people will interact with colors would take a huge effect in their everyday lives. It is more than just a color = mood expression. It goes into an introspective of how it can enhance anyones feelings in a situation and give a thoughtful outlook to how they can perceive it. Additionally, it helps for a better insight on how others feel and how individuals can take that knowledge and use in any place they have not been acquainted in. As David Johnson puts it, Like death and taxes, there is no escaping color.

II.

My Original Research
For my research, I began with a simple question, Does the effect of color add to the situation we are in? This question came upon me while I was conducting my literature review and found out about the statistics on how color affects our mood. As a result, it occurred to me that even though all the information was saying variations of color wavelengths could affect us, they did not say if universal situations were also associated with colors and feelings. Because of this question, I decided to dig deeper into inquiry; hence my idea for my experiment.

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The way I performed my experiment was by asking my tester questions on how they would feel in different scenarios- such as being stuck in traffic, winning an all expenses paid trip, and so on. After I would ask the questions, I would show a slide of one color that seem to have the most positive effect on the tester. If their answer matched up to my literature review research, I would put it as a positive effect, along with answers that did not match up to my literature review (which would be a negative effect). Below you would see how the four people in my experiment responded with positive/negative answers. If a person had an negative and positive answer I would take both their answers and use them, not just use the persons majority response.

4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Scenario 1 (Color Yellow) Scenario 2 (Color Orange) Scenario 3 (Color Red) Scenario 4 (Color Blue) Scenario 5 (Different Colors) Positive Negative

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III.

Conclusion

In conclusion, what I took from this research was that it is occasionally true that in different situations color can affect how you feel and what your mood would be like. My data brought together all my main points from my research that improved my argument for my experiment. Not to mention that most of my research did match up to several of my sources that relatively said the same thing. The experiment I conducted was thorough and helped me to understand that universal situations do help as a major factor in how color affects mood. At the most, I found this topic the most interesting because I had learned that color affecting mood did not mean that red equals to anger or yellow equals to happiness, but that colors can be associated to what we are feeling. The literature review gave a good insight on how we should see beyond with colors. Although we regularly dont notice how react to them, subconsciously we go deeper with colors more than we think we do. Whether its for healing our bodies, used in therapy, or just around us, color would always affect us in the most extreme way.

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IV.

Works Cited

Cherry, Kendra. "Color Psychology - The Psychology of Color." Psychology - Complete Guide to Psychology for Students, Educators & Enthusiasts. Web. 11 May 2011. <http://psychology.about.com/od/sensationandperception/a/colorpsych.htm>. Colour Affects. "How It Works." Colour Affects. 2008-2011. Web. 11 May 2011. <http://www.colour-affects.co.uk/how-it-works>. Johnson, David. "Color Psychology Infoplease.com." Infoplease: Encyclopedia, Almanac, Atlas, Biographies, Dictionary, Thesaurus. Free Online Reference, Research & Homework Help. Infoplease.com. 2007. Web. 11 May 2011. <http://www.infoplease.com/spot/colors1.html>. Kosednar, Kyla. "Can Color Change Your Mood?" Alaska Wellness Magazine. Web. 11 May 2011. <http://www.alaskawellness.com/KylaKosednarSeptOct2005.htm>. Wollard, Kathy. "HOW COME? / DISCOVERIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE / Orange You Glad You're Not Blue?" Newsday - The Long Island and New York City News Source. 27 Nov. 2000. Web. 11 May 2011. <http://www.newsday.com/how-comediscoveries-for-young-people-orange-you-glad-you-re-not-blue-1.288654>.

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