Investigating the effects of the user’s ego state on color selecting in residential interiors

Objective: The present study aims at identifying a suitable color for space given the dominant ego state including inner child, adult, and parent within the user in order to set an applied guideline to establish an effective interaction between space and human being. The main objective of this research has been the presentation of the significance of color within the environment based on the principles ruling the human mental and ego states.
Methodology: This study relishes a correlational method to evaluate the relationship between two variables including the ego state – as an independent variable, and the type of selected color – as a dependent variable. The data collection for this study was done as a field survey through a questionnaire and library studies to become aware of the past literature and through a correlation analysis of data using Pearson Correlation Test and SPSS software.
Conclusions: Investigation of the results achieved from the field research showed that there is a high correlation between the inner child and interest in happy colors, and that, when in moderate ego state, people show higher tendency to bright colors which are included in the inner child’s area of interest. On the contrary, a better color choice suitable for people may help them achieve a better feeling, i.e. a moderate ego state and autonomy. This is achieved when both identification of the user and discretion of the designer go together concurrently to provide the user with an inner peace and satisfaction and cause him to reach a mental health promotion.
Originality: In this paper, has been tried to investigate the relationship between the inner interests of human beings and one of the important elements of architecture, color, by using one of the psychological discussions known as Transactional Analysis, which has never been before, and can help in Immediate cognition of user by the designer. This paper can be useful for designers, architecture students, professors and specially researchers in the field of environmental psychology.