Environmental Changes to Support Mental Health - Part 2

Missed Part 1? We covered light exposure and green space exposure. Check it out here! 

Now, let’s consider 3 more environmental changes you can make to support you and your family’s mental health this year.

3. Colors

Color psychology is a whole field of study for psychologists, marketers, and designers. There is some research to support that you can choose colors to match a mood you’d like to achieve. 

If you’d like to feel competitive, literally “seeing red” can help. Red can induce feelings of dominance and aggressiveness. Red has been most consistently associated with these emotions in the context of sports, so red might have a place in your home gym! 

In contrast, red has been associated with failure on cognitive tasks, especially those that require mental manipulation and flexibility. Researchers supporting this theory claim that red can induce feelings of failure and danger, and induces coping by avoiding difficulty. Indeed, avoidance motivation has also been associated with worse performance and effort even in basic, repetitive cognitive tasks. 

On the other hand, yellow is considered to evoke brilliance, vitality, and warmth. Blue is thought to suggest depth, and help relieve tension and nervousness, while instilling hope, optimism, tranquility, confidence, security, and stability. Green may suggest freshness, renewal, health flexibility, and self-esteem. White can be used to convey simplicity and cleanliness. 

These results are still contested and investigation continues. For instance, the effect of colors on emotions and other psychological factors could be culturally-dependent. However, noticing what colors surround you and your family could be a good exercise and opportunity to modify your environment to support your performance and emotions better.

4. Sound

Once you start to pay attention to your colors, you may start to notice the noises in your home. 

First, you might pay attention to the overall noise level. During the pandemic, in-home noise was found to affect adolescents attention and executive function. In high noise environments, children also have shown poor persistence on tasks and habituate to auditory distraction. Chronic noise exposure is also associated with higher levels on neuroendocrine and cardiovascular measures. 

Of course, some noise has to and should occur, so this is an opportunity be mindful of the quality of noise. Consider what kind of conversations or verbal noise there might be, the impact of having 24/7 news channels on in the background, or what kind of music might be played. 

5. Tech environment

Technology is now ubiquitous in our homes. From computers, phones, TVs, to smart home management systems, technology certainly has added convenience and entertainment to our lives. 

Of course, sometimes it’s a good idea to re-evaluate our overall use of technology and the amount of technology in our home and daily lives. However, with current reality, it can be helpful to start by reconsidering our relationship with technology.

For instance, many adults are familiar with feeling constantly on the clock now that they have 24/7 access to email, phone, and other messaging services. One study found that if we can separate work from home with technology, this promoted better detachment and recovery from work. Though this research was performed with adults, many teens likely experience this too. So many teens have computers in their bedrooms, and can check their grades anytime on their phone. It may be difficult to disconnect from school, especially when they transition from homework to bed seamlessly. In another study, individuals who set lower boundaries around information and communication technology had a stronger association between work-home boundaries and sleep problems. In contrast, setting boundaries around using technology for work or school while at home can be helpful for sleep as a recovery process and being able to disengage from stressful sources.

Summary

In summary, considering exposure to light, green space, colors, sounds, and technology can help you and your family make changes to your home environment to support you and your family’s physical and mental health this year!

References:

Barber, L. K., & Jenkins, J. S. (2014). Creating technological boundaries to protect bedtime: Examining work–home boundary management, psychological detachment and sleep. Stress and Health, 30(3), 259-264.

Chere, B., & Kirkham, N. (2021). The negative impact of noise on adolescents’ executive function: an online study in the context of home-learning during a pandemic. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 715301.

Elliot, A. J., & Maier, M. A. (2014). Color psychology: Effects of perceiving color on psychological functioning in humans. Annual review of psychology, 65(1), 95-120.

Evans, G. W., Hygge, S., & Bullinger, M. (1995). Chronic noise and psychological stress. Psychological Science, 6(6), 333-338.

Graham, L. T., Gosling, S. D., & Travis, C. K. (2015). The psychology of home environments: A call for research on residential space. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(3), 346-356.

Park, Y., Fritz, C., & Jex, S. M. (2011). Relationships between work-home segmentation and psychological detachment from work: the role of communication technology use at home. Journal of occupational health psychology, 16(4), 457.

Romeh, R. M., Elhawary, D. M., Maghraby, T. M., Elhag, A. E., & Hassabo, A. G. (2024). Psychology of the color of advertising in marketing and consumer psychology. Journal of Textiles, Coloration and Polymer Science, 21(2), 427-434.