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Second Sources Summary

Color Psychology
The formation of color was discovered by Sir Isaac Newton in 1666. He
discovered that when pure light passes through a prism, each differently
colored light is separated. He also discovered that every color is composed of
a single wavelength of light and cannot be further separated into other
colors. Other experiments were done to demonstrate that different colored
lights can be combined to create other colors. For example, yellow light can
be combined with red light to form orange light (pretty basic knowledge at
this point in our life). Each color has a negative/opposing color, which when
combined with each other they cancel each other out and form white.
There are different sides to the color spectrum which can be classified
as, warm colors and cool colors. The warm colors category is composed of
red, yellow, and orange. These warm colors are said to cause feelings of
comfort and warmth or even feelings of anger and hostility. The cool colors
section of the color spectrum is composed of colors such as blue, green, and
purple. Cool colors have been described as calm colors. They also have been
observed to cause feelings of sadness or depression.
In some ancient cultures such as, ancient Egyptian and Chinese
cultures color was used to heal. The process of using color to heal is called
chromotherapy. In this type of treatment certain colors were used to do
certain things such as:

Red- used to stimulate the body and mind to increase circulation


Yellow- stimulate the nerves and purify the body
Orange- used to heal the lungs and increase energy levels
Blue- used to soothe illnesses and treat pain
Indigo- were thought to alleviate skin problems
Although, modern psychologists approach these beliefs with skepticism there
have been many other studies on the effects of being exposed to certain
colors.
This article was easy to read and interpret. The information was
supported well be explanations and backed up with well-known references.
The information in the article related to my topic very well. It obvious how I
can connect the information given to the topic of my paper.
Cherry, Kendra. "Color Psychology." About Education. About.com, 2015.
Web. 23 Mar. 2015.

Color and Meaning


To experiment with the idea of chromotherapy, laboratory testing had
to be done. To test this idea of colors actually affecting someones emotions
participants were brought in and were shown seventy-three different color
patches. The participants were asked to rank the different colors based off of
preference. Based off of how the subject ranked the different colors, the
psychologists could analyze the participants character. Analysis of the
subjects character is based off of the meanings attributed to certain colors.
At the end of this test, the results were found to show exactly what
Max Luscher, Swiss psychologist, hypothesized. His hypothesis just like most
modern psychologists (twentieth-century), was that blue would be the most
preferred color. Blue is found to be the most preferred color because it is
passive, sensitive, unifying, and overall, calming. On the other end of the list,
orange-red is the least preferred color because it is offensive, aggressive,
competitive, and overall unpleasing. Because of these attributes blue is on
the more referred side and red is on the least preferred side.
The information I retrieved out of this text will be very helpful in my
paper because it tells exactly what kind of emotions are associated with red
and blue. There are also other sections of this text that I can use to find more
information for my paper. For the most part this text was an easy read, it just
took some time to focus on what I was reading and connect it to my topic.
Gage, John. Color and Meaning. University of California Press Berkeley and
Los Angeles, California, CA: Thames and Hudson Ltd., London, 1999.
Print.

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