Color Psychology - Amy Michelle Schultz色彩心理学-艾米米歇尔舒尔茨.doc

Color Psychology 1 Running Head: COLOR PSYCHOLOGY Color Psychology: The Psychological and Physiological Affects of Color Amy Schultz Antelope Valley College Color Psychology 2 Abstract This paper reviews recent research in the field of color psychology. The research includes the basics of color, how the eye interacts with color, color association and perception, the physiological effects of color, and the usage of color in the environment, including case studies. Some diagrams will be included to aid understanding. Finally, the author will conclude with some of her opinions on the research and its pertinence in the fields of graphic communications and interior design. Color Psychology 3 Color Psychology: The Psychological and Physiological Affects of Color We encounter color in every aspect of our lives. We respond to the colors in everything we do, whether we realize it or not. You respond to a traffic light changing to green or from yellow to red. You respond to red and blue flashing lights on a fire engine or sheriff’s car. You also respond to the color of your environment such as a classroom, office building, or your own home. Responses to room colors are found below consciousness. The question is how do we respond to these colors and why? The Basics of Color The primary colors are the only pure colors that cannot be made by mixing other colors. Those colors are red, yellow, and blue (Appendix A). Various hues and shades of these colors may be produced, but the pure colors red, yellow, and blue cannot be. Secondary colors result from mixing two primary colors. Mixing red and yellow produces orange, yellow and blue produces green, and blue and red produces purple (Appendix B). You can further divide them into tertiary colors by mixing a primary with it’s closest secondary, but this is extra and not as important as understanding the primaries and secondaries. Complementary colors are defined as colors opposing each other on the color whee