Construing colours using repertory grid technique: An idiographic approach in colour perception

Abstract

This article offers an alternative methodological approach to the exploration of subjective experiences by studying individuals' personal views of perceived colours. The study aims to investigate the construals of individuals related to perceived colours using an idiographic approach. The subjective approach proposed is based on the theory of personal construct psychology and the methodology of the repertory grid technique. A repertory grid experiment was conducted to determine individuals' ways of construing colours and examine the collective understanding of the content and structure of individuals' construals concerning perceived colours. Sixty undergraduate students participated in the experiment, yielding 60 different repertory grids that included a number of personal constructs indicating the construal process of participants in differentiating between 11 basic colours. Participants produced their own semantic bipolar dimensions for comparing the perceived colours and creating differential ratings according to their personal constructs. The elicited data were evaluated using qualitative content analysis to understand the differences between individual systems of constructs and investigate the commonality of shared constructs relating to colours. The data were also analyzed quantitatively to investigate the common structure of and interrelationship between elicited constructs and perceived colours. The outcomes have the potential to contribute to academic and practical knowledge concerning colour perception, as well as encouraging further studies with an idiographic approach.

Relationship between context‐free/in‐context spatial color preferences and color constructs: The extraversion personality trait dimension

“…The study utilized 11 colors as stimuli: black, gray, white, yellow, orange, red, pink, purple, brown, blue, and green. The Natural Color System (NCS) was adopted as the color standard, and the corresponding NCS notations were obtained from Akbay and Börekçi's 46 study. To ensure cultural relevance and alignment with participants' color categories, the study specifically considered the cultural context of the Turkish participants.…”

“…Therefore, Şahin Ekici's 47 study on color naming, which was conducted in several cities in different regions of Türkiye, was taken into account when selecting the appropriate colors. These 11 colors served as the categories for the focal colors of each basic name, also called basic color terms 46,48 . Table 1 presents the list of the 11 colors, along with their corresponding names and NCS notations.…”

“…The study employed 12 bipolar color‐construct scales to assess participants' spatial color preferences, derived from a previous study 46 on personal construct psychology that examined the cognitive representations of individuals' ways of construing colors (Table 2). These scales were selected form a larger set of 41 color‐construct scales and were considered the most relevant in assessing spatial color preferences.…”

“…These scales were also aligned with Kasmar's 50 suggested lexicon of architectural environmental descriptors. In a previous study, 46 the 12 scales were categorized into four factors, activity, purity/lightness, familiarity, and evaluation, with three scales assigned to each factor. Additionally, commonly used bipolar scales in color preference research, such as “dislike‐like” and “unpleasant‐pleasant,” were included in the list of color‐construct scales.…”

Application of Cognitive System Model and Gestalt Psychology in Residential Healthy Environment Design

“…It is based on the above research conclusions, in order to improve the environmental comfort of the residential area, this paper introduces the psychological theory into the environmental design of the residential area. Typical psychological theories mainly include cognitive system model and Gestalt psychology [ 11 – 13 ], color psychology [ 14 – 16 ], cognitive psychology [ 17 – 19 ], ecological self-consciousness theory [ 20 ], and probability self-consciousness theory [ 21 ]. Gestalt psychology is most widely and successfully used in interaction design.…”