Dreams From The Inside- Content Analysis

Question 1

Issues & problems

Answer 1

A chasm exists between what our brains do & what we experience

These brain theories lead to specific psychological interpretations that drive research in one direction

Question 2

Patterns in dreams

Answer 2

If dreams are coherent

Worth looking for structure

It depends on what you think dreams are like

Dream content is more coherent, consistent over time & continuous with waking emotional concerns than most brainstem-driven theories of dreaming allow

Contrast this with the characterisation last lecture

Question 3

Hall & Van de Castle (1966)

Answer 3

Content analysis

The focus is on not the most interesting idiosyncratic detail of individual dreams but what can be measured

Findings consistent across cultures, decades & life span

Question 4

The content analysis identified-

Answer 4

Characters

Social interactions

Activities

Striving (success & failure)

Misfortune & good fortune

Emotions

Physical surroundings

Food & eating

Elements from the past

Question 5

Where do we go in our dreams?

Answer 5

Indoors (male 44% & female 55%)

Outdoors (male 47% & female 35%)

Ambiguous (male 7% & female 9%)

Familiar (male 31% & female 37%)

Unfamiliar (male 19% & female 10%)

Questionable (male 39% & female 43%)

Distorted (male 2% & female 6%)

Geographic (male 8% & female 4%)

None (male 2% & female 1%)

Question 6

What things feature in our dreams

Answer 6

Household

Food

Tools

Travel

Body

Clothing

Communications

Money

Question 7

Who is in our dreams?

Answer 7

Males (male 67%, female 48%)

Familiar (45%, 58%)

Friends (31%, 37%)

Family (12%, 19%)

Animals (6%, 4%)

Children (2%, 4%)

Question 8

Characters

Answer 8

Animals

Humans

Mythical

Question 9

What sorts of things happen?

Answer 9

Misfortune- 36% male, 33% female

Good fortune- 6% both genders

Question 10

Emotion in dreams

Answer 10

Apprehension- 35-40%

Confusión- 20-23%

Happy- 18-21%

Anger- 9-12%

Sad- 9-13%

Question 11

Social interactions

Answer 11

Friendly- 38-42%

Aggression- 37-44%

Sexual

Question 12

What sorts of aggressive interactions do we have with our dream characters?

Answer 12

Victim- 60-67%

Physical- 34-50%

Question 13

Types of aggression

Answer 13

Rejection- 18-36%

Attack- 15-22%

Verbal- 15-17%

Chasing/confinement- 13-15%

Verbal Covet- 10-11%

Destruction- 4-6%

Serious threat- 4-5%

Murder- 2-6%

Question 14

Sexual dreams

Answer 14

Only 74/1180 dreams

Dreams in which sex occurs- 4-12%

Dreamer involved- 68-93%

With familiar- 32-77%

With unfamiliar- 23-54%

Witnessed- 7-32%

Question 15

Children’s dreams

Answer 15

Domhoff (1996)

600 dreams, ages 2-12

2-6 yrs- 30% characters are animals

7-12 yrs- 15% characters are animals

Adults- 5% are animals

Question 16

Strauch (1996)

Answer 16

30% of animals in children’s dreams are aggressive

Question 17

Levine (1991)

Answer 17

66% of dreams of children in conflict zones

Question 18

Coherence of dreams

Answer 18

Dream content is more coherence, consistent over time & continuous with waking emotional concerns than most brain-stem driven theories of dreaming allow, but dreaming probably has no adaptive