Every Mood Has a Color: What’s Yours Right Now?

The concept of mood is complex and difficult to establish. It reflects a transitory notion.

Having always been a fundamental concept, the origin of mood relies on the Hippocratic theory of the four fluids or humor: Black Bile, Blood, Phlegm, and Yellow Bile. To achieve an equilibrium in mood, these four liquids should be balanced.

This frame of mind also becomes difficult to define, as one’s judgment depends on the perception of others. Backed by individual experiences, it can be expressed with different tonalities.

The first part concerns an emotion, feeling, or affect. Emotion is an instantaneous perception of a feeling. Affect corresponds to a Freudian notion of the drive.

The second part incorporates varied (philosophical) conceptions of one’s frame of mind, like the cognitive theory. Others are based on the pathological model of manic-depressive psychosis, like the psychoanalysis of mood.

The conception of mood in cognitive psychology is derived from the analysis of emotion. The mood is considered as a group of persisting feelings associated with evaluative and cognitive states, influencing all future evaluations, feelings, and actions.

An insight on mood

We all might have at some point or the other in our lives, come across people exclaiming tonalities of their mood like “I am not in a mood to work today”, “My mood is off,” or “Alas! If only she could conquer her mood shifts.”

Knowingly or unknowingly, we all experience mood swings. You all might have at one point or the other in your life have exclaimed or heard people saying, “I am feeling blah!” Now, what does this feeling, “blah” imply? Generically used to show how boring is one’s life going, B-L-A-H shows one’s lethargy infused with boredom.

Did you know feeling bored made one of the many human moods!

On this note, talking about moods. You certainly might be befuddled about what precisely are “moods” and how do humans possess “mood rings”?

The conception of mood or a frame of mind in cognitive psychology is derived from an analysis of emotion. The mood is considered as a group of persisting feelings associated with evaluative and cognitive states, which influence all future evaluations, feelings, and actions.

An individual’s mood cannot be always chromatic, sometimes it is achromatic too! Moods and emotions are fundamental to every mortal being.

In an article, “Will Dog Still Be A Man’s Best Friend In 50 Years?” there goes a quote saying, “All dogs can read the emotions of humans. Research points out, dogs can understand their owner’s mood- if they are happy, so are the dogs and vice versa. They do make a great companion in need.”

Likely, the differing moods and emotions that cast upon one’s visage are always clear. We cannot live in an assumption to mask up our feelings with some other trait that doesn’t blend in with our individuality. Preserving one’s individuality, after all, is the essence. 

Psychology Behind Chromatic And Achromatic Moods

Color is in everything we perceive; it is an inseparable part of our lives. It is one of the most critical design elements that can change the characteristics of the physical environment easily.

“Color is a tool in design that can influence psychological and physiological responses in humans.” (The Effect Of Chromatic And Achromatic Color Schemes On Children’s Emotions In A Preschool Classroom, Donya Dalirnaghadeh)

Despite attributing unique dimensions to space, color plays a primeval part in influencing human behavior, well-being, health, and decision-making strategy.

Color impacts human lives; physically, psychologically, physiologically, and sociologically.

In Psychology, colors are broadly split into two groups according to the tonal gradations they possess: Chromatic and Achromatic.

Chromatic, as the name suggests, is one in which a particular wavelength or hue predominates. Example- Blue and Green. On the other hand, Achromatic means “without color”. It refers to neutral colors. Example- Black and White.

These colors are further characterized by three dimensions: hue (pigment of the color, e.g. blue, red), saturation (chroma of color), and brightness (darkness or lightness of the color).

Likely, there are shades for human mood too! These are categorized under the third dimension, which is of Color and Brightness.

Brightness is also known as lightness and has an intensity value. It helps to distinguish a light color from a darker one. When compared with white, it is the lightness value that comes into consideration and not the darkness quotient. Brightness is the amount of black that exists in a color.

The Color-Order System

Brighter colors are associated with positive emotions, whereas dark colors are associated with negative emotions. A mutual Colour-Order System can help in profiling samples of all ages and genders. A color order system is a way of specifying and arranging object colors according to different schemes.

There are three methods of distinguishing these models from each other: Color-Order System based on Subtractive Mixture, Color-Order System based on Additive Mixture, and Color-Order System based on Perceptual Evaluation.

To understand them in more detail, let’s discuss them in brief:

1. Color-Order System based on Subtractive Mixture: Subtractive color mixing is produced on illuminating colored filters with white light from behind. The rampantly used subtractive primary colors are cyan, magenta, and yellow. However, upon overlapping all three colors effectively, an equal mixture is procured, and from which when all of the light is subtracted, it gives black.

2. Color-Order System based on Additive Mixture: This theory is based on how colors are made by mixing the primary colors red, green, and blue; and how those mixed colors are perceived. This is a fundamental component of color theory as it examines how the most common colors—red, blue, and green—are mixed and perceived by the human eye. Additive color involves the mixing of colored light. An example of this would be the colors on a television screen.

3. Color-Order System based on Perceptual Evaluation: Color is a perceptual phenomenon. Color is caused by receptors in our eyes that are stimulated by electromagnetic radiation of certain wavelengths. The production of color requires three elements: light source, object, and the eye‐brain system of the viewer.

This involves the mixing of colored paints, pigments, inks, and dyes. The traditional subtractive primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. This color-order system is akin to the Dispersion of White Light into the spectrum by a prism.

All three color-order systems are systematic and rational methods of arranging colors or subsets in a systematic and chronological order.

Interesting Facts About Human Moods!

Human Moods are variegated! They can be many shades and be equally interesting at the same time too!

Here are some interesting facts about human moods to blow off your mind.

1. Moods Are Physical: As well as being a psychological phenomenon, moods are also felt outside of the brain in the rest of the body. Certain parts of the body, especially the upper half, are heavily stimulated during emotions such as love, happiness, and pride, whereas depression and sadness are linked to numbness.
2. Moods Are Contagious: Humans have a tendency, they mimic. We just can’t resist catching other people’s emotions and thus, we try to observe and adapt them. Thus, unlike emotions that take only six seconds to absorb in the human body, moods are contagious.
3. Colors Influence How One Feels: Distinct colors can stir up certain emotions because of what we associate with these hues from nature. For example, blue is a very soothing color and enhances relaxation because it’s associated with the ocean, whereas yellow is considered a joyous, vibrant color because of its connection to the sun.
4. The Effect Of Smells On Mood: Smells have quite an effect on our moods. Especially unpleasant smells trigger negative moods spontaneously.
5. Generalization Of Moods: Moods are generalized. They are not tied to a specific incident, but a collection of inputs. They can last minutes, hours, even days.
6. Moods Are Heavily Influenced By Several Factors: The environment (weather, lighting, people around us), physiology (what we’ve been eating, how we’ve been exercising, how healthy we are), and finally our mental state (where we’re focusing attention and our current emotions), heavily influences fluid.
7. Mood Mixture: As we go through the days, the mood becomes a mix of feelings and emotions. The mood is a semi-persistent mental, physical, and emotional state of mind that affects the body.
8. The Reason We Have Moods: Often the threats and opportunities that emotions and feelings signal are not just one-offs; by having a lasting mood, we stay tuned to handle what’s next. They are the preamble to the kind of day (good or bad) one may experience.
9. Muscles Make-up: It takes forty-three human facial muscles to express the entire spectrum of the frame of mind and change various facial expressions.

In conclusion, we can just say if you wish to maintain a holistic livelihood with an equilibrium of health, wealth, and stealth, it is crucial that all the human mood rings stay synchronized. A great mood is equivalent to a productive livelihood!