The psychopathology of everyday art: a quantitative Study - World ...

specific areas of positivity could be compared and that these impressions are distinct
from the other variables.
Measurements of Colour from the literature analysis
The evidence suggests that normal controls generally used more colours than all patient
groups. However, few studies examined the colours used, but employed some grouping
system in the rating: darks and lights, warm and cool, tonal variations and monochromatic
variations. These divisions are all relative to the picture itself, since red and green can be
seen as 'dark' together, whereas with other colours, such as brown or black, they can seem
'lighter'. Dark can also be relative to the intensity of use and therefore these terms are
ambiguous, may require special knowledge of the behaviour of tones, and contain layers
of judgement decisions. The terms 'gloomy' and 'sombre' colours were often used as an
indication of depression, but no evidence supports such associations. Previous research
has recommended formal factors 246 , hue, value, chroma and tonality as likely to contain
differentiating information. Whereas the basic hue of a colour is discernable, the other
three qualities require a trained eye and may be too sensitive for an initial study. Most
of what they convey can be summed up in the quality of intensity. Particular associations
between intensity and hue may be better dealt with in the analysis, as decisions such as
dominant or prominent colour lend themselves to misinterpretations and to the subjective
associations of judges.
246
W.L. Wadlington and H.J. McWhinnie (1973), The development of a rating scale for the study of
formal aesthetic qualities in the paintings of mental patients, Arts in Psychotherapy , V.1(3-4):201-20.
188