Lüscher color test

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The Color Test is a 1947 by Max Luscher developed projective personality test , the order of preference of subjects determined for given test colors and is based on the assumption that it reliably and effectively psychologically relevant characteristics can be determined. Many scientists do not consider this assumption to be proven, and there are indications of a Barnum effect with regard to the given interpretations. There is the very common so-called small Lüscher test, which works with eight colors, as well as the clinical Lüscher test, which works with seven color tables and a total of 73 color fields of 25 different colors, from which 43 different choices have to be made. The tests are u. a. Used in medical practice, in homeopathic treatments , in psychiatry , to investigate abnormalities in offenders and to assess applicants . Compared to other projective tests such as the Rorschach test, it impresses with its ease of use, which can also be carried out by untrained personnel. Due to the popular book editions with the easily looked up interpretive texts, the little test was also widely used among laypeople.

Carrying out the small Lüscher test

The books come with the eight cards with the test colors. They are all laid out openly at the beginning. The test person then selects the card whose color he likes the most, turns it over so that the number printed on the back can be seen, and puts it aside. Then the card with the next best color is selected from the remaining cards and placed upside down to the right of the card selected first. This continues until the least preferred card is taken and placed on the far right of the row of flipped cards.

The resulting sequence of numbers is divided into four pairs, each pair being assigned a symbol: “+” for the first pair, “×” for the second pair, “=” for the third pair and “-” for the final pair. When logging, the corresponding symbol of the pair to which the number belongs is inserted in front of each number. Example: "+4 +3 × 1 × 2 = 5 = 6 −0 −7". The symbols indicate the relationship to the respective color:

character relationship
"+" strong preference
"×" sympathy
"=" indifference
"-" Rejection

When choosing the colors, it is crucial to look at the colors in an abstract way and not to associate them with any objects or decorative objects. As early as 1952, Norman and Scott identified this as a major problem with tests based on color preferences.

The test can then be repeated. If the second test run differs from the first, it is assumed that the latter is more spontaneous and therefore more authentic.

The evaluation tables give an interpretation for each pair, for each symbol. In the example one would look up accordingly under “+4 +3”, “× 1 × 2”, “= 5 = 6” and “−0 −7”, whereby the sequence is relevant in each case, i.e. H. “+4 +3” is interpreted differently than “+3 +4”. Finally the first and the last number are considered, in the example “+4 −7”. For the interpretation text there are percentages that, based on a test with 36,892 students, indicate what proportion of them this couple had chosen. Stars are also sometimes indicated. The higher the number of accumulated stars, the more likely the test will interpret this as a potential psychological maladjustment.

Test colors

The eight colors of the small test are divided into four basic colors and four modification colors. The basic colors represent four basic psychological structures that are related to some psychological types that go back to Carl Gustav Jung . This approach is based on the depth psychological relationship between the conscious and the unconscious , between subject and object . In the relationship, either the subject ( autonomy ) or the object ( heteronomy ) dominates and, orthogonally , the subject turns to itself (con-centric) or the object (e-centric). Lüscher distances himself here from the concept of introversion , coined by Jung , in order to differentiate this more sharply from the property of egocentrism , which he regards as an orthogonal character property . Ideally, the four primary colors are expected to appear in the first four or five places. If black, gray, or brown are preferred, this is seen as an indication of a disorder.

The colors in the following table are only intended as a rough guide. Precise colorimetric measurements were made by Lakowski and Melhuish in 1973, for example, and it was found that the color cards sold by Test-Verlag are about a third lighter than those published by Random House .

number colour Type characterization
1 dark blue heteronomous, concentric sympathy
2 blue green autonomous, con-centric Self-confidence
3 Orange red autonomous, eccentric vitality
4th light yellow heteronomous, eccentric Hope / sense of community
5 violet Infantility
6th brown Nest feeling
7th black Absolute nothing / death
0 Gray distance

In Lüscher's argument, humans were influenced by day and night, darkness and light, especially in their early history. Activities were impossible during the night, while the bright day offered opportunities for activities. The light yellow color stands for daylight and thus for activity and development, while the dark blue represents the night sky and is associated with calm and passivity. Lüscher also sees a connection with the vegetative nervous system in the colors orange-red and dark blue . According to his observations, if the orange-red color is viewed for a long time, the blood pressure rises, and both breathing and heartbeat become faster. The dark blue, on the other hand, has a calming effect, blood pressure drops and both breathing and heartbeat slow down. Lüscher sees an objective meaning in this, which arises instinctively and reflexively regardless of whether the colors are preferred or not.

criticism

It is often criticized that the validity of the test cannot be proven. The Rorschach test, which also works with colors, was criticized for the fact that the validation was primarily based on clinical experience, but hardly on the basis of psychological experiments . Pickford's criticism, published in 1971, for example, goes in a similar direction. In the test procedure published by Random House, he found evidence of experiments that substantiate the hypotheses about the characterization of the test colors used. The approach is rejected as dogmatic and uncritical. Another interesting question is to what extent the test can be transferred to color-blind people . Lüscher refers to a study by L. Steinke and comes to the conclusion that the effectiveness of the test is not impaired in the case of color ametropia . Pickford accuses Steinke of using the patients suffering from deuteranopia for comparison, but not subjects with protanopia , who can barely distinguish the test colors orange-red and brown.

Then some psychological experiments followed. In 1971, French and Barney examined the effect of the test colors on 46 students, whereby first the individual colors had to be provided with predefined adjectives, then the eight-color test was carried out twice and finally the test subjects underwent the Illinois Personality and Ability Testing Compare the indications for potential disorders. French and Barney saw the effect of the colors dark blue and light yellow confirmed, but could not understand the effect of the orange-red ascribed by Lüscher. They also found that the positions of the basic colors are subject to a high degree of variability, while the modification colors were positioned rather unchanged. Gender differences were also found in affective responses. Overall, French and Barney did not see the validity of the test as an instrument for measuring tension confirmed.

In 1974 Donnelly carried out the test on 98 psychology students, twice each with a 45-day time difference, and then compared the results. He found that the first and eighth colors hardly changed, but the third or fourth colors were very different. He also reports significant differences in gender and between Europe and America. Braün and Bonta carried out a similar test with students, who also found significant differences between Americans and Canadians. Because of the lack of correlation between the first and second pass, they recommended discarding the test as a diagnostic tool.

Holmes and other authors at Emporia State University compared the Lüscher test with MMPI in 1984 and found that there were no significant matches. They suspected that the popularity of the Lüscher test, despite everything, could be due to the Barnum effect. H. many of the interpretive texts are written in such a general way that almost everyone will find them to be correct. In a later investigation they found this assumption to be confirmed. The authors then carried out the test on 1143 patients in a psychiatric clinic. They did not find any deviating preference with regard to the modification colors that would be expected in this case.

Picco and Dzindolet from Cameron University published a study in 1994 that looked at the validity of Lüscher's assumptions about the four primary colors. Two experiments were carried out, the first to improve the process. In the second experiment, 98 psychology students performed the test. This should be compared with the respondents' self-assessment of the extent to which the interpretations in relation to the preferred color apply to them. Because of the disruptive factor of social desirability , four interpretive texts were developed for each of the four basic colors, which are neutral in this respect. The test persons were then presented with all 16 interpretive texts, whereby they assessed each interpretation individually on a level from 1 to 7, to what extent it would apply to them. The experiment was completed by the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) developed by Hans Jürgen Eysenck . The authors did not see the interpretations of the Lüscher test confirmed. On the contrary, they found that subjects who preferred blue-green were more extroverted than subjects who found dark blue or light yellow most appealing. Conversely, subjects who preferred light yellow were rated as more introverted than those who named blue-green first. Based on these results, the validity of the Lüscher test was questioned.

In order to underpin the validity of the test, Lüscher added a detailed bibliography with work on and about the Lüscher test to the books, which is also updated on the Internet. Authors from the Anglo-Saxon region in particular complain that there is hardly any English-language literature among them and that it is difficult to obtain. Because of this one-sidedness, adaptations of the test to non-European cultures are also missing.

In their critical review of color psychology, which also includes the Lüscher test, Whitfield and Wiltshire come to the conclusion in 1990 that the assumption that the reaction to color impressions depends on the emotional state has been adequately supported by experiments, but is not yet clear whether this allows conclusions to be drawn about character traits.

Test outputs

  • Max Lüscher: Lüscher test . Test-Verlag, Basel 1969.
  • Max Lüscher: The Lüscher Color Test . Ed .: Ian Scott. Random House, 1969.
  • Max Lüscher: The Lüscher test . Personality assessment through color choice. Rowohlt, Hamburg 1971, ISBN 3-498-03812-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Loren V. Corotto, James L. Hafner: The Luscher Color Test: Relationship between Color Preferences and Behavior . In: Perceptual and Motor Skills . Vol. 50, 1980, pp. 1066 ( amsciepub.com ).
  2. ^ A b c Cooper B. Holmes, Jo Ann Buchannan, David S. Dungan, Teresa Reed: The Barnum Effect in Luscher Color Test Interpretation . In: Journal of Clinical Psychology . Vol. 42, No. 1 , 1986, pp. 133-136 .
  3. ↑ a b c R. Basra, E. Cortes, V. Khullar, C. Kelleher: Do color and personality influence treatment seeking behavior in women with lower urinary tract symptoms? A prospective study using the short Lüscher color test . In: Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology . Vol. 29, No. 5 , 2009, p. 407-411 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Cheryl Anne French, A. Barney Alexander: The Luscher Color Test: An Investigation of Validity and Underlying Assumptions . In: Journal of Personality Assessment . Vol. 36, No. 4 , 1972, p. 361-365 .
  5. ↑ a b c Claude MJ Braün, James L. Bonta: Cross-Cultural Validity, Reliability, and Stimulus Characteristics of the Lüscher Color Test . In: Journal of Personality Assessment . Vol. 43, No. 5 , 1979, pp. 459-460 .
  6. ^ A b T. WA Whitfield, TJ Wiltshire: Color psychology: A critical review . In: Genetic, Social & General Psychology Monographs . Vol. 116, No. 4 , 1990, ISSN  8756-7547 , pp. 387 ff .
  7. ^ A b Richard D. Picco, Mary T. Dzindolet: Examining the Lüscher Color Test . In: Perceptual and Motor Skills . Vol. 79, No. 3 , 1994, p. 1555-1558 .
  8. ↑ Lüscher 1971, p. 12.
  9. ↑ Lüscher 1971, p. 13.
  10. ↑ a b c On the trail of the human psyche with colors. swissinfo.ch, September 8, 2003, accessed March 7, 2014 .
  11. ^ A b F. Stöffler: The eight-color choice according to Lüscher in psychiatry . Part 1: Basics of the test. In: Medical Clinic . tape 70 , no. 10 , 1975, p. 433-437 .
  12. ↑ F. Stöffler: The eight-color choice according to Lüscher in psychiatry . Part 2: Psychopathological Test Results. In: Medical Clinic . tape 70 , no. 11 , 1975, p. 485-487 .
  13. ^ RC Rahn: Lüscher Color Theory: Civilians and Criminals . In: Art Psychotherapy . Vol. 3, 1976, pp. 145-155 .
  14. ^ RC Rahn: Lüscher Color Theory: Civilians and Criminals . A Supplemental Report. In: Art Psychotherapy . Vol. 4, 1977, pp. 215-217 .
  15. ↑ Red line . In: Der Spiegel . No. 39 , 1996 ( online ).
  16. ↑ Lüscher 1971, p. 13: With the Lüscher test, he [the doctor] can leave the test recording to his office hours assistant without hesitation.
  17. ↑ The book published by Rowohlt-Verlag was in the Spiegel bestseller list for several weeks in 1971, for example: fiction, non-fiction . In: Der Spiegel . No. 34 , 1971 ( online ).
  18. ↑ Lüscher 1971, pp. 8, 15.
  19. ^ A b Ralph D. Norman, William A. Scott: Color and Affect: A Review and Semantic Evaluation . In: The Journal of General Psychology . Vol. 46, 1952, pp. 185-223 .
  20. ↑ a b c R. W. Pickford: Review Article: The Lüscher Color Test . In: Occupational Psychology . Vol. 45, No. 2 , 1971, p. 151-154 .
  21. ^ A b Don Pavey, Roy Osborne: Color Engrained in the Mind . Character profiling that researches how to find excellence in everyone. lulu.com, 2010, ISBN 1-4457-6834-8 , pp. 32–35 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  22. ↑ Lüscher 1971, p. 47.
  23. ↑ Lüscher 1971, pp. 18-19.
  24. ↑ Lüscher 1971, p. 20.
  25. ^ R. Lakowski, P. Melhuish: Objective Analysis of the Lüscher Color Test . In: Adam Hilger (Ed.): Color 73: Proceedings of the Second Congress of the International Color Association . London 1973, p. 486-489 .
  26. ↑ Lüscher, pp. 10-11.
  27. ↑ Lüscher 1971, p. 11.
  28. ^ Frank A. Donnelly: The Luscher Color Test: Reliability and Selection Preferences by College Students . In: Psychological Reports . Vol. 34, No. 2 , 1974, p. 635-638 .
  29. ^ A b Cooper B. Holmes, Philip J. Wurtz, Ronald F. Waln, David S. Dungan, Christopher A. Joseph: Relationship between the Luscher Color Test and the MMPI . In: Journal of Clinical Psychology . Vol. 40, No. 1 , 1984, p. 126-128 .
  30. ^ Cooper B. Holmes, H. Edward Fouty, Philip J. Wurtz, Bruce M. Burdick: The Relationship Between Color Preference and Psychiatric Disorders . In: Journal of Clinical Psychology . Vol. 41, No. 6 , 1985, pp. 746-749 .
  31. ↑ Lüscher 1971, pp. 163–171.
  32. ↑ Bibliography. Retrieved February 26, 2014 .