Domhoff, G.W. (2000). Methods and measures for the study of dream content. Principles and Practices of Sleep Medicine; tom 3 [s. 463-471].pdf

Domhoff: Methods and Measures for the Study of Dream Content

Strona 1 z 13

MethodsandMeasuresfortheStudyofDreamContent

G.WilliamDomhoff

UniversityofCalifornia,SantaCruz

NOTE: If you use this paper in research, please use the following citation, as this on-line version is simply a reprint of the

original article:

Domhoff, G. W. (2000). Methods and measures for the study of dream content. In M. Kryger, T.

Roth, & W. Dement (Eds.), PrinciplesandPractiesofSleepMedicine:Vol.3 (pp. 463-471).

Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders.

Introduction

The systematic study of dream content has led to many interesting and useful findings concerning

developmental changes, gender differences, cross-cultural similarities and differences, consistency in

what individuals dream about over decades, and the continuity between dream content and waking

thought. Such findings lay the groundwork for future studies of psychopathology in dream content.

[1-5]

This chapter focuses on the methods, measures, and strategies of data analysis that have generated

the many findings alluded to in the opening paragraph. It discusses the advantages and disadvantages

of: (1) four methods for collecting dream reports; (2) four methods of content analysis; and, (3)

several approaches to data analysis. It concludes with the presentation of several dream content

indicators that might prove useful in the future in understanding psychopathology through dreams.

MethodsforCollectingDreamReports

There are four sources of dream reports, namely, the sleep laboratory, the psychotherapy

relationship, personal dream journals, and reports written down on anonymous forms in group

settings, of which the classroom is the most typical. These four sources provide both dream series

(two or more dreams from an individual) and dream sets (a collection of single dream reports from

the members of any given group).

Questionnaires asking people if they think they dream about one or another topic are not considered

here because they are not a method of collecting dream reports. Such questionnaires ask for opinions

that in fact relate to personality style and cultural beliefs concerning dreams. In four different

samples, for example, subjects said they dreamt most frequently about friendliness, secondly about

sexuality, and least often about aggression,6 but representative samples of dream content with

similar college student populations show that aggression is the most frequent social interaction in

dream reports, followed by friendliness, and -- at a very distant third -- sexuality. [5,7,8] Since there is

little or no correlation between snap judgments on questionnaires and dream content, such

questionnaires cannot be used as substitutes for dream reports.

There are several factors that may influence the content of the dream report regardless of which

collection method is used. They include the instructions given to the dreamer for making the report,

file://E:\prace\artykuþy\sny\tresc snow\ilosciowa analiza snow\Domhoff Methods and...

2009-01-19

Domhoff: Methods and Measures for the Study of Dream Content

Strona 2 z 13

the nature of the interpersonal situation if the report is verbal, and the degree of anonymity available

to the subject. [1] These and other problems can be mitigated, if not eliminated, by collecting dream

reports with a standardized interview protocol or written form and using subjects whose participation

is voluntary. Anonymity also is useful when possible, although it is not as crucial as might be

thought because most people feel very little personal responsibility for their dreams and are therefore

willing to report unusual themes and elements. [4,9] One of the most important safeguards against

some of the problems having to do with report quality is a large sample size, which serves to

minimize the effects of inadequate or confabulated reports .

SleepLaboratories

Sleep laboratories provide the opportunity for collecting a large representative sample of a person's

dream life under controlled conditions. Awakenings during REM periods, or from NREM periods

late in the sleep period, maximize the probability of recall, making it possible to collect as many as

four or five dream narratives in a single night. [10] The collection of dreams in the sleep laboratory

from those who say they seldom or never dream is only one of the many ways that laboratory studies

expanded the horizon for those who study dream content. [11-12]

Studies of dream reports collected in the laboratory suggest that dream content does not differ

greatly from early to late in the sleep period. [13-17] Although one careful study of five subjects found

there were more references to the past in later REM periods, [18] the finding was not replicated in a

larger study. [16] Similarly, even though NREM and REM reports do not differ greatly if report

length is held constant, it is also the case that many NREM reports are shorter or more

"thoughtlike." [19-21]

Nor do dream reports collected in laboratory settings differ greatly, if at all, from those written down

by the same subjects at home. [9,17,22-24] To the degree that there are differences, there may be less

aggression and sexuality in laboratory-collected reports, [16,25] but as just noted, sexuality is

relatively infrequent in non-laboratory reports, appearing in 12% of young men's dreams and 4% of

young women's dreams in a normative sample based on 500 male and 500 female reports. [5]

Furthermore, the magnitude of the statistically significant differences -- that is, the effect size -- is

small except in the case of physical aggression, which is more frequent in dreams collected at home.

[22]

A major problem with the laboratory collection of dream reports is that it is an expensive and time-

consuming process. The sleep laboratory is especially difficult to use in an era when there is little if

any outside funding for dream research. [26] If this state of affairs continues, then laboratory studies

may have made their greatest contribution to content studies for the time being by: (1) documenting

the frequency and regularity of dreaming; (2) demonstrating the relative imperviousness of dreams to

either external or internal stimuli; and, (3) providing a normative context for judging the

representativeness of dream samples collected outside the sleep laboratory.

ThePsychotherapyRelationship

The psychotherapy relationship is a longstanding source of dream reports. Such reports have the

virtue of rich accompanying biographical and fantasy material. They provide the occasion for the

creation of dream journals that include dreams reported in therapy as well as those written down

outside of therapy. However, not all psychotherapists make use of dreams, and only Jungian analysts

regularly encourage their patients to keep a dream journal. Moreover, patients are a small and

unrepresentative sample of the population. Consequently, very little use has been made of this

method in systematic studies. It is mostly used in individual case studies involving extended analyses

of one or two dreams.

DreamJournals

file://E:\prace\artykuþy\sny\tresc snow\ilosciowa analiza snow\Domhoff Methods and...

2009-01-19

Domhoff: Methods and Measures for the Study of Dream Content

Strona 3 z 13

Dream journals are a third source of dream reports. The best-known dream journals are those

discussed by Jungian analysts, [27] but journals kept for personal, artistic, or intellectual reasons have

been studied with great profit as well. [28,29] Dream journals are a form of "personal document" long

recognized in psychology as having the potential for providing insights into personality. [30,31] They

are "nonreactive" archival sources that have not been influenced by the purposes of the investigators

who analyze them. Conclusions drawn from nonreactive archival data are considered most

impressive when they are based on a diversity of archives likely to have different types of potential

biases. [32] Dream journals have been extremely valuable in establishing the considerable consistency

in what people dream about whatever the purposes of the journal writer. [4]

For all their potential usefulness, dream journals are not without their drawbacks. Even after showing

initial willingness, some people may not want to provide dreams for scientific scrutiny. Journals may

have gaps or omissions. The journal writer may not be willing to reply to inferences about his or her

personal life based on a blind analysis of the journal's contents. Dream journals therefore are best

used selectively and in the context of other dream samples.

ClassroomsandOtherGroupSettings

The most objective and structured context for the efficient and inexpensive collection of large

samples of dream reports is the classroom, where reports can be written by anonymous subjects who

reveal only their age and gender. [33] The main drawback of this method is that it is usually not

possible to collect very much personality or cognitive information on the people providing the dream

reports.

The classroom collection of dream reports has led to a focus on the Most Recent Dream a person can

remember -- a report which can be obtained in any setting where people can spare 15 to 20 minutes

of their time, such as convention halls, conferences, and waiting rooms, in addition to classrooms. In

this approach, people are simply asked to provide their gender, age, and "the last dream you

remember having, whether it was last night, last week, or last month." [4] It primes for recency by

asking subjects to report the date the dream occurred. The date of recall not only primes for recency

in an attempt to eliminate atypical recurrent dreams and nightmares, but also allows investigators to

eliminate dreams said to have occurred months or years earlier if they so desire. The Most Recent

Dream technique leads to samples that match the normative findings created by Hall and Van de

Castle's coding system. [4,5] In addition, the results with 12-13 year-old preadolescents are similar in

some respects to those from laboratory dream reports for this age group. [34] Finally, the legitimacy

of the Most Recent Dream approach has been enhanced by the findings mentioned earlier on the

similarities between dream reports collected in the sleep laboratory and at home from the same

subjects. [9,17,22-24]

MethodsforAnalyzingDreamContent

The four general methods for analyzing dream content include: (1) collecting free associations; (2)

finding metaphoric meaning; (3) searching for repeated themes; and, (4) quantitative analyses using

either rating systems or nominal (discrete) categories. Whatever method is used, the content analyst

should know nothing about the dreamer to guard against the well-known tendency to read

expectations into the dream reports. Such "blind analyses," when combined with predictions about

the waking thoughts and behavior of the individual or group under study, are the best scientific

alternative in a situation where experiments have restricted usefulness. It is also essential to remove

any prefatory remarks, side comments, or interpretations by the dreamer from transcripts or written

reports before they are given to those who will analyze them.

FreeAssociations

The free association method, introduced into the study of dreams by Freud, consists of instructing

file://E:\prace\artykuþy\sny\tresc snow\ilosciowa analiza snow\Domhoff Methods and...

2009-01-19

Domhoff: Methods and Measures for the Study of Dream Content

Strona 4 z 13

dreamers to say whatever comes into their minds about each element of the dream without censoring

their thoughts. [35] The method, which is theoretically neutral and can be used by non-Freudians,

often reveals the day-to-day events incorporated into the dream -- the "day residue" -- and the

emotional concerns of the dreamer. However, in the psychotherapy setting it is difficult to

demonstrate that the free associations actually explain the dream because so much else is known

about the dreamer that could be playing a role in constructing a "meaning" for the dream.

The most extensive attempt to use free associations in dream studies outside a clinical setting is

presented, along with a complex system for coding both the dreams and the free associations, in

Foulkes' TheGrammarofDreams. [36] However, Foulkes later noted that "extensive experience in

association gathering" convinced him of its "inherent arbitrariness."26 Moreover, two studies 40

years apart found that free associations do not improve a blind personality assessment if the

assessors are working with a dream series from an individual; that is, the assessors who had free

associations along with the dream series did not do any better than those who had only the dream

series. [37,38] Thus, the free association method seems tied to the clinical setting on the one hand and

not necessary if a dream series is available on the other.

MetaphoricAnalysis

"Symbolic" interpretations are used as a supplement to free associations in the analysis of dreams in

psychotherapy settings, and also in some studies of lengthy dream journals. Such symbolic

interpretations are perhaps now more appropriately thought of as "metaphoric analysis" because

there is some evidence that dream symbolism may be based in the large system of conceptual

metaphors that is universally understood and used in Western civilization. [39-42] For example, in a

study of the sexual symbols said by Freud to be present in dreams, Hall found that all of them are

used as sexual slang in the English language according to Partridge's DictionaryofSlangand

UnconventionalEnglish. [43,44]

Similarly, it can be shown that the "functional" symbols identified by Jungians, that is, symbols

which are said to stand for parts of the mind or the mind as a whole, are all based in common

metaphors. For example, the equation of "psyche" and "house" in Jungian theory is based on the

conceptual metaphor "the mind is a container." The general use of myths in Jungian and neo-

Freudian theory to understand aspects of dreams is also a form of metaphoric analysis. There are

several problems with metaphoric analyses, starting with the fact that there is as yet no systematic

evidence on how many dreams are metaphoric in nature. It also may be the case that more than one

metaphor might plausibly be applied to some dreams. Moreover, it might be that dreams, if they are

metaphoric, often rely on personal metaphors based on past experiences. [45] Some of these problems

can be overcome in a study of a dream series because the repetition of elements can lead to a strong

argument for applying one or another conceptual metaphor, but metaphoric analysis as a rigorous

and systematic approach remains undeveloped. [43,46]

ThematicAnalysis

A third method of dream analysis, the thematic method, shades off from metaphoric analysis. It

involves repeatedly reading through a dream series to see if one or more themes emerge. Sometimes

the search is made easier by the presence of one or more "spotlight" dreams that seem to contain the

theme or themes in an obvious fashion. [47] One study concluded that six themes appeared with

regularity over a period of 50 years in a dream series consisting of 649 dreams; these six themes

accounted for at least part of the content in about 70% of the dreams. [48] Although it may be a little

easier to reach common agreement on the presence of themes than it is in the case of metaphors,

there is still considerable room for disagreement among investigators. The method also suffers from

the fact that the findings tend to be unique to each dreamer, allowing little opportunity for

generalizations across dreamers. Finally, thematic analyses tend to be very general. They do not go

very far in terms of detailed statements about dream content that can be tested on new dream

file://E:\prace\artykuþy\sny\tresc snow\ilosciowa analiza snow\Domhoff Methods and...

2009-01-19

Domhoff: Methods and Measures for the Study of Dream Content

Strona 5 z 13

samples.

QuantitativeApproaches

Dissatisfaction with the reliability and generalizability of free associative, metaphoric, and thematic

methods of studying dream content led to quantitative approaches called "content analysis." The

major task in content analysis is the creation of carefully defined categories that lead to the same

results when used by different investigators and that yield findings that relate to other variables.

There are no pat formulas for creating good categories. Usually it is a matter of trial and error after

deep immersion in the material to be analyzed. There are two major issues in formulating categories

for the analysis of dream content. Should they be hierarchical or nominal in their level of

measurement? Should they be theoretical or empirical in nature? These two questions lead to the

possibility of four different types of scales, and in fact all four types have been employed in dream

research. [49,50]

Hierarchical scales assume that a characteristic or element can be ranked or weighed. For example,

there can be degrees of emotionality, distortion, or vividness in a dream report. In measurement

terms, a hierarchical scale is ordinal if it is only possible to rank elements from high to low, equal

interval if all points on the scale are equally distant from each other, and ratio if it has an exact zero

point (such as weight does). Although a few theoretical scales have assigned "weights" to different

elements, making them equal interval scales, most hierarchical scales in dream research have been

ordinal ones, resting on the more modest assumption that "more" or "less" is the most that can be

judged in a dream report.

Nominal scales, on the other hand, are nonhierarchical. They simply record the presence or absence

of a characteristic or element in the dream report. "Male" and "female," for example, are nominal

categories, that is, they are "discrete" categories that allow simply for the comparison of frequencies.

Rating scales of an ordinal nature have been employed with great benefit in a wide variety of useful

studies, the most important of which are the longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of children's

dream reports by Foulkes and his co-workers. [2,51,52] Their scales made it possible to show dramatic

changes in dream content from primarily single, static images without the dreamer present in

children under age 6, to stories with temporal sequences of action and the dreamer an active

participant in the dream by age 8. Generally speaking, rating scales are useful for characteristics of

dream reports that have degrees of intensity in waking life, such as activity level or emotionality, or

that are without specific content, such as clarity of visual imagery.

Nevertheless, there are drawbacks to the use of rating scales in the study of dream content. First, it is

difficult to establish reliability for some scales, especially those that call for subtle judgments such as

the degree of distortion or bizarreness present in the overall dream report. Second, a general rating

does not make full use of the potential information present in the dream report. An overall

"unusualness" or "bizarreness" rating, for example, does not record the fact that in one case the

unusualness is due to a metamorphosis, in another to a distorted setting, and in still another to

impossible actions and activities. [53,54]

Third, and most important, some rating scales rest on untenable psychological assumptions when

they assign numbers to social interactions like aggression or friendliness. In the case of aggression,

for example, one coding system assigns a score of "4" to a murder and a "1" to an angry remark, but

the summation of such codings implies that four angry remarks are equal to one murder. Such

examples could be multiplied, but the point is that there is no psychologically defensible way to rate

many of the events that occur in dreams. [5,49,50,55]

Nominal scales do not suffer from the same weaknesses that many rating scales do. Higher

reliabilities can be obtained because discrete scales usually can be more clearly defined and do not

file://E:\prace\artykuþy\sny\tresc snow\ilosciowa analiza snow\Domhoff Methods and...

2009-01-19

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: