You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

Psychologists have known for many years that colour can affect how people feel. For this reason, attention should be given to colour schemes when decorating places such as offices and hospitals.

How true this statement? How far colours influence people’s health and capacity for work?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

You should write at least 250 words.

Sample Essay 1:

Colour has always played an important role in the human history and according to some recent research, it affects our consciousness and mood. I personally believe that a proper colour represents a good will and shows tenderness and this is why public buildings should have proper colour and decoration.

To begin with, we are associated with different colours from the very beginning of our life. Parents and teachers teach us different colours and scientists believe that a child’s ability to classify different colours is connected with his calibre and talent. Thus our brains associate this colours with our moods and feelings. For instance, the red light on the streets sends an immediate alert to our brain to stop our vehicle while the green colour signals us to go ahead. Thus we are trained to react and feel differently with the association of colours. From this perspective, it is important to use soothing and accepted colours in places like schools, hospitals and offices.

Furthermore, we tend to associate colours with different events from our personal experience. For this reasons, some people relate red with blood while white with peace. Universally blue is the colour of nature and fewer people would complain about it. Besides, people in some countries relate colours with certain moods. For example, more than one quarter Americans believe that the blue has something to do with comfort and cosiness while red represents violence. Due to the influence of colours in human psychology, all renowned food and beverage retailers have their own colour schemes.

According to an article published on the Huffington Post, a combination of slate blue mixes with olive green and soft cream has helped to foster a team environment in many organisations. This also states that it has increased the team spirit and productivity of employees.

To conclude, people’s wellbeing often depends on psychological condition and since colour has an acute influence on our mood, proper colour schemes should be used in our homes, offices, schools and public places.

Sample Essay 2:

Since the beginning of the civilisation, colour is a big part of human life. Different research and experiments have been done to find the effect of colours on people’s mood and psychology and the findings show that feelings of people can be influenced by colour. Hence, public buildings are suggested to use appropriate colour for decoration to motivate people to feel better. I agree that colour can affect our psychology and that is why offices and other public buildings should have appropriate colour and decorations.

Firstly, a public health service should be located at a nice place, have a comfortable environment and appropriate decoration so that people feel better being there. It is important for the patients who stay there for quite a while or visit there for treatments. The top priority should be the better treatment facility and skilled doctors and then the colour scheme and decoration should be set in a way so that people feel better being there. Green and white could be two suitable colours for a hospital. Colour of the building and decoration matter and that’s why the restaurants and food selling brands have invested a lot of money to find the right colour to inspire people to eat and drink. Almost every renowned restaurant has its own branding and colour to attract people.  Proper colour can keep people calm and help them feel better and that’s why it is especially important for the hospitals and other health care centres to have the right colour and decoration. From my experience, I can say that I can wait more time in a room with soothing colour and decoration than in a messy room with very bright colour.  A particular colour can trigger our brain and arouse our feelings unconsciously.

Similarly colour and interior decoration used in an office building can affect the mood and psychology of employees. Natural and eye-soothing colours are better for our physical and mental health and directly related to our stress level. Hence using the most appropriate colour in offices is also important. From my personal experience, I can say that I find light green, aqua and white colour very eye-soothing and I prefer to stay in a room decorated using these colours. Probably a very bright red colour would give me a headache as it is often related to anger, frustration and fire. Thus I believe that colours are directly and indirectly related to people’s work performance, mental state and health.

To conclude, I stand to claim that colour has a big effect on human psychology in many ways. Thus, colour or decoration of a room should never be selected randomly. Rather a good amount of time should be invested to colour any building.

[ Written by – Melanesia Boseren ]