Colours & Psychology: Referrals & Publications Needed

[Leopold Infeld]

Can anyone refer me to some website where they mention something about the relation of colours and psychology? And if anyone also know about some publication on the subject, please tell me.

Very much appreciated for help out. :)

 

[melottejoseph]

i am also intereted in this item; the relation of colours and psychology.

 

[quantumcarl]

Can anyone refer me to some website where they mention something about the relation of colours and psychology? And if anyone also know about some publication on the subject, please tell me.

Very much appreciated for help out. :)

Faber Birren was one of the civilian contributors to the 2WW effort with his colour definitions for "stop" (red) "orange" (yield) and so on. He used colour to designate various cautionary notices in munitions factories where mostly women put together bombs and bombers etc...

His understanding of the psychology and therapeutic qualities of individual colours was instrumental in defeating the Nazi push to dominate the world and in developing a working model for traffic, construction and related signage.

He also studied the therapeutic effects of colour in illnesses and disease. A complete synopsis of his research can be found in his book,

"Color Psychology and Color Therapy".

Here's a site that goes further into depth about what I've mentioned. However, be warned, the author of the site has not followed any of the colour guidelines set by Faber Birren.

http://www.shibuya.com/garden/colorpsycho.html

 

[fuzzyfelt]

I’d be interested to hear of anything too. I have had trouble finding anything particularly recent. I agree with the recommendation of Faber Birren. Johannes Itten is a favourite of mine, athough I can see that his work is rather subjective and dated. Jung too, with his differentiation of personality aspects and related colours – thinking-blue and feeling-red, sensation-green and intuition-yellow. Christine Ladd Franklin’s colour theory is also interesting, as is Max Lusche’s personality test.
More recently, Rikard Kuller, Antonio F Torrice, who related colours to bodily systems, and Hiroshi Sasaki, who Quantumcarl linked to, are among the few whose work I’ve heard of.
Going off on a tangent, (ignore this if needs be) this paper is not really psychological, but the most novel thing I’ve read about colour in a while. Not understanding the ideas involved however, it could be rubbish and I’d be obliged if anyone versed in QFT were to tell me so!
http://www.marilia.unesp.br/atividades/extensao/revista/v3/artigo2.html

 

[quantumcarl]

I’d be interested to hear of anything too. I have had trouble finding anything particularly recent. I agree with the recommendation of Faber Birren. Johannes Itten is a favourite of mine, athough I can see that his work is rather subjective and dated. Jung too, with his differentiation of personality aspects and related colours – thinking-blue and feeling-red, sensation-green and intuition-yellow. Christine Ladd Franklin’s colour theory is also interesting, as is Max Lusche’s personality test.
More recently, Rikard Kuller, Antonio F Torrice, who related colours to bodily systems, and Hiroshi Sasaki, who Quantumcarl linked to, are among the few whose work I’ve heard of.
Going off on a tangent, (ignore this if needs be) this paper is not really psychological, but the most novel thing I’ve read about colour in a while. Not understanding the ideas involved however, it could be rubbish and I’d be obliged if anyone versed in QFT were to tell me so!
http://www.marilia.unesp.br/atividades/extensao/revista/v3/artigo2.html

To illustrate the extent to which Birren researched colour therapy and how he utilized earlier studies please read the book I mentioned. He studies the hormonal responses to colour in detail and produces results that are astounding with regard to activating and de-activating growth hormones. He's researched and witnessed colour therapy shrink tumours and heal broken bones with simple coloured light or pigments.

This research all took place in the fifties, after a tremendous amount of practical colour reasearch during the 2nd WW. But, you know, sometimes once something has been thoroughly developed as a research peice, you can't do much more. Take the safety pin for example... it remains unchanged and unimproved since its invention. In fact, Velcro hasn't changed much either since its accidental inception.