Typical dreams experienced by Chinese people.

The present study investigated the prevalence profile and frequencies of typical dream themes experienced by Chinese people. The Typical Dreams Questionnaire was administered to 348 university students in Hong Kong. The results demonstrated that the prevalence profile of the typical dream themes for the Chinese participants resembled those profiles previously reported by Western studies. In addition, the present study found large positive correlations between the rank-ordered prevalence and frequency scores of the typical dream themes. This implied that the most prevalent themes were also more likely to be the most recurrent themes and vice versa. Therefore, typical dream themes not only are shared by many people but also tend to be repeatedly experienced within a person. This result supports the postulation that typical dreams are distinguished by both their universality and recurrence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contemporary chinese sex symbols in dreams.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 20(3) of Dreaming (see record 2010-17362-003). The publishing year of the article in the correction notice was listed incorrectly as 2009. The correct publication year for the original article is 2010. The word were was also misspelled in the body of the correction as where.] [Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 20(2) of Dreaming (see record 2010-12874-005). Three Chinese characters where printed incorrectly in the article. The correct symbols are shown along with the location of each in the original article. An error is also located on page 26, 3rd paragraph from the top, second symbol in the third sentence from the bottom of the paragraph. On page 28, 1st paragraph, the 1st symbol in line 7 of the paragraph is incorrect. The last error is on page 28, in which the 1st paragraph, 1st symbol in the last line of the paragraph is incorrect.] The present study aimed to determine how often Chinese people dream of sexual metaphors and to examine the association between the dreaming of sexual experiences and contemporary Chinese sex symbols. A list of sex symbols was derived from a thorough review of the sexual analogies that Chinese people most often use in slang language. This list, together with the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised–Short Form, was administrated to a sample of 608 upper-secondary school graduates from Hong Kong. It was found that the participants rarely dreamed about food analogies for sex, such as “eating litchis” and “bananas or banana-like objects.” By contrast, sex symbols involving weapons and aggressive behavior, such as “knives, swords, or daggers” and “shooting,” occurred in dreams with moderate prevalence rates. Moreover, gender, the frequency of dreaming sexual experiences, and social desirability significantly predicted the frequency scores on the scale formed by these aggressive symbols for sex. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gravity content in dreams.

Flying and falling dreams are often listed among the most common of dreams. Aside from the pure form, in which the dreamer actually falls or flies, it is frequent to find situations in which the dreamer deals with actions or objects implying gravity functions, that is, climbing, floating through air or water, and going up or down on a ladder or in an elevator. By means of the analysis of 685 dreams of male and female subjects, aged between 10 and 32, we registered various gravity contents (falling, flying, water, climbing, descending, staircase, and elevator) and their interrelations. Results show the presence of these elements in 38.1% of the sampled dreams. The authors focused on the link between gravity contents and other typical elements appearing in the same dream (attack, loss, sexual relationships, the body, performance/exams, and nursing). Results tend to confirm a link between gravity content and sexuality. The results of our research are essentially consistent with the findings of an analysis in DreamBank (http://www.dreambank.net/) of the frequency of words related to gravity in a dreams sample (N=14,193). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex dreams, wet dreams, and nocturnal emissions.

This study provides an overview of the frequencies and narrative features of sex and wet dreams and investigates the incestuous behavior in the manifest content of dreams. A questionnaire specially designed for capturing both quantitative and qualitative aspects of sex and wet dreams was administered to 58 male participants. More than 80% of participants had dreamed about having vaginal intercourse with a woman. Dreaming of sexual interactions other than vaginal intercourse—such as oral sex—was also common. Consistent with the hypothesis that latent sexual motives or some variation of sexuality that people may not be aware of during the daytime would emerge at night through dreaming, both homosexual and incestuous behaviors were observed in dreams. In addition, the finding indicates that sexual thoughts and motives can be represented by symbols in dreams, and dream impressions involving no erotic scenes are capable of eliciting nocturnal emissions. It seems that sex dreams, wet dreams, and nocturnal emissions without erotic imagery or dreaming can be distinguished from each other. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contemporary Chinese sex symbols in dreams: Correction to Yu (2009).

Reports an error in Contemporary Chinese sex symbols in dreams by Calvin Kai-Ching Yu (Dreaming, 2010[Mar], Vol 20[1], 25-41). Three Chinese characters where printed incorrectly in the article. The correct symbols are shown along with the location of each in the original article. On page 26, 3rd paragraph from the top, the second symbol in the third sentence from the bottom of the paragraph is incorrect. On page 28, 1st paragraph, the 1st symbol in line 7 of the paragraph is also incorrect. The last error on page 28, in which the 1st paragraph, 1st symbol in the last line of the paragraph is incorrect. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2010-05656-003.) The present study aimed to determine how often Chinese people dream of sexual metaphors and to examine the association between the dreaming of sexual experiences and contemporary Chinese sex symbols. A list of sex symbols was derived from a thorough review of the sexual analogies that Chinese people most often use in slang language. This list, together with the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised–Short Form, was administrated to a sample of 608 upper-secondary school graduates from Hong Kong. It was found that the participants rarely dreamed about food analogies for sex, such as “eating litchis” and “bananas or banana-like objects.” By contrast, sex symbols involving weapons and aggressive behavior, such as “knives, swords, or daggers” and “shooting,” occurred in dreams with moderate prevalence rates. Moreover, gender, the frequency of dreaming sexual experiences, and social desirability significantly predicted the frequency scores on the scale formed by these aggressive symbols for sex. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recurrence of typical dreams and the instinctual and delusional predispositions of dreams.

The present study investigated the recurrence of typical dreams and refined Yu's measures for assessing the delusional inclination during dreaming. The Dream Themes Inventory, which consists of typical, delusional, appetitive-instinctual dream themes, was administered to 608 participants. The results indicate that some dream motifs are not only shared by a majority of people but also regularly recur within a person. Moreover, this study demonstrates that virtually all types of delusions and paranoid suspiciousness—including grandiose, persecutory, religious, somatic, jealous, and erotomanic delusions—can be observed in dreams. In addition to fine-tuning Yu's previous Ego Ideal, Grandiosity, and Persecution scales, Erotomania, Appetite-instinct, and Sensorimotor Excitement scales were developed to supplement the assessment of the intrinsic predispositions that modulate dream content. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Content analysis of dreams and waking narratives.

This study investigated the specificity of dream content and its continuity with waking life. For each subject (125 men and 125 women, between the ages of 19 and 29 years), a dream and a waking episode were collected according to “the most recent dream” method (Hartmann, Elkin, & Garg, 1991), which was also applied to “a recent life episode.” Both kinds of narratives were analyzed through the application of the Hall–Van de Castle System (1966) and a typical content analysis (a compendium of the most important typical dream taxonomies). In dreams, typical situations involved the dreamer trying to perform some physical action, most frequently with difficulties in mastering the task. Affective relationships and hostile interactions with an enemy were shared by both narratives, but cognitive activities were uncommon in both cases. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dumuzi's Dream: Dream Analysis in Ancient Mesopotamia.

Mesopotamian civilization was the first to develop writing and the first from which literary texts remain, dating back to the late 3rd millennium B.C. Some of these texts contain accounts of dreams, especially of royal figures. The earliest of these texts, evidently the earliest recorded dream in history, is the dream of Dumuzi of Uruk. This dream is embedded within the framework of the larger epic of the Descent of Inanna, and not only is the dream text itself included but also its interpretation, by Dumuzi's sister Geshtin-anna. She appears to have played the role of a professional dream interpretress. There are also several cylinder seals that appear to depict the motifs of Dumuzi's dream. This article examines this dream and its interpretation within the Mesopotamian cultural context. It also compares the dream with several other well-known dream texts from Mesopotamia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of impactful dreams on self-perceptual depth and spiritual transformation.

Two studies contrasted the short-term effects of nightmares, existential dreams, and transcendent dreams (Busink & Kuiken, 1996; Kuiken & Sikora, 1993). Results from Study 1 indicated that existential dreams were more likely than mundane dreams, transcendent dreams, or nightmares to be followed by reported self-perceptual depth; also, transcendent dreams were more likely than mundane dreams, existential dreams, or nightmares to be followed by reported spiritual transformation. Results from Study 2 replicated these findings for existential dreams, indicating also that the type of spiritual transformation associated with transcendent dreams involved an ecstatic sense of release from everyday entanglements. Both existential dreams and transcendent dreams moved the dreamer toward an unbounded sense of life in all things, as did lucid forms of all three dream types. Such unbounded enlivenment suggests an aesthetic substrate to the changes induced by each of these dream types. The contrasting short-term effects of impactful dream types may require integration into a comprehensive model of long-term dream function. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Video game play and lucid dreams: Implications for the development of consciousness.

The improvement of various cognitive skills associated with video game play has been well documented; however, the development of consciousness implications have not been considered. In the present study several potential indicators of consciousness development, including and especially lucid dreaming frequency, were examined as a function of video game play. In the first study, high video game players were more likely to report lucid dreams, observer dreams, and dream control when dream recall frequency and motion disorientation during play were controlled. There were no similar differences in other consciousness development indices. In the second study, a slightly different pattern of results occurred because of respondents all being frequent players. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Students' views on the role of dreams in human life.

The present study was an attempt to investigate the subjectively perceived role of dreams. It examined the private concepts of dreams and dreaming, attitude toward dreams, and the influence of dreams on behavior, which can manifest in sharing dreams with other people, trying to interpret one's own dreams, believing they have special meaning, or behaving according to the clues given by the dream. The sample consisted of 47 participants, students ages 19-20. A structured interview, individually administered, was used. The results indicate interesting relationships between analyzed variables and gender; they also show individual differences in both common notions about dreams and the way dreams can influence other kinds of behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Paranoia in dreams and the classification of typical dreams.

The present study was geared toward expanding the previous evidence for the thematic similarities between dreaming and psychosis. Themes derived from delusions that characterize psychotic and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, together with the modified Typical Dream Questionnaire, were administered to 280 Chinese participants from Hong Kong. These delusional themes served as some continuous variables for evaluating the degree to which the narrative contents of dreaming can be compared with those of psychotic and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. It was found that delusions of various types, with various levels of bizarreness, could be observed in dreams. This was particularly true for themes involving paranoid suspiciousness, such as blaming others for making troubles and feeling that others are not giving proper credit for one’s achievements, which were dreamed by a majority of the participants. The current findings generated by the exploratory factor analyses precisely replicated Yu’s (2009) previous delusional model that classified dream themes into the Ego Ideal, Grandiosity, and Persecution categories. Moreover, the present study expanded the Ego Ideal category, developed measures for assessing the delusional inclination during dreaming, and discussed the reciprocal, triadic dynamics between the three major categories of dream themes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The logical structure of dreams and their relation to reality.

The contradictions and non sequiturs often found in dreams (or, equivalently, dream-narratives) are not in fact logical errors, but express and work with a type of logic that characterizes the deepest dimensions of our waking reality. These are the dimensions in which we deal with ourselves as a whole, our lives as a whole, or with the sense of reality as a whole. We do so, for example, in situations of deep personal transformation, or of recognition of deep difference of outlook. The paper argues that the logic of these situations is validly one of contradiction and non sequitur, that dreams sometimes express and work with these kinds of situations, and that these kinds of dreams therefore validly involve the same kind of logic. These kinds of dreams consequently also express insight into the sense that our lives or existence as a whole has for us. In achieving that insight, they actively orient, situate, or resituate us in our relation to our lives or existence as a whole. In this respect they are in themselves a practice of philosophy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Delusions and the factor structure of typical dreams.

The present study was geared toward generating a parsimonious factor model of typical dreams. Moreover, the hypothesis that themes typically manifest in psychotic delusions also prevail in normal people's dreams was examined. The modified Typical Dreams Questionnaire was administered to a sample of 348 university students from Hong Kong. The factor solutions generated by the current analyses indicate that typical dreams can be classified into three primary categories or six subcategories according to the two-tier model. Consistent with the homology between dreaming and psychosis, the first two categories of the upper tier are, in essence, characterized by the two classic psychotic themes—the grandiose and persecutory delusions. The third category of dream themes consists in the distinctive affective experience that can be, one way or another, attributed to the function of the ego ideal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal content of dreams in relation to the process and outcome of single sessions using the Hill Dream Model.

The authors coded 67 dreams into 5 categories for interpersonal content (7 positive, 20 negative, 9 agency, 16 nightmares, and 15 noninterpersonal); an additional 90 dreams were excluded because they had multiple or ambiguous interpersonal themes. The authors then compared the process (client involvement and therapist competence) and outcome (insight gains, action gains, session evaluation, and change in target problems) of dream sessions in which therapists used the Hill model for the 5 different types of dreams. Process and outcome were better for clients who presented positive, agency, and noninterpersonal dreams than for clients who presented negative dreams and nightmares. Implications for practice and research are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recurrent dreams and psychosocial adjustment in preteenaged children.

Research indicates that recurrent dreams in adults are associated with impoverished psychological well-being. Whether similar associations exist in children remains unknown. The authors hypothesized that children reporting recurrent dreams would show poorer psychosocial adjustment than children without recurrent dreams. One hundred sixty-eight 11-year-old children self-reported on their recurrent dreams and on measures of psychosocial adjustment. Although 35% of children reported having experienced a recurrent dream during the past year, our hypothesis was only partially supported. Multivariate analyses revealed a marginally significant interaction between gender and recurrent dream presence and a significant main effect of gender. Univariate analyses revealed that boys reporting recurrent dreams reported significantly higher scores on reactive aggression than those who did not (d = 0.58). This suggests that by age 11 years, the presence of recurrent dreams may already reflect underlying emotional difficulties in boys but not necessarily in girls. Challenges in addressing this developmental question are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dream Intensity Inventory and Chinese people's dream experience frequencies.

The present study aimed to devise a parsimonious instrument for evaluating both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of dream experiences and to quantify Chinese people's dream experiences in ways that facilitated cross-cultural comparisons. The Dream Intensity Inventory was developed and administered to 348 Chinese university students. Individual differences in dream recall frequency were observed, with some participants recalling dreams almost every morning whereas others recalled dreams less than once a month. By contrast, the Chinese participants exhibited less diverse dream awareness frequencies. Multiple dreams in a single night and nightmares were found to be prevalent among the Chinese participants. On the other hand, fewer than half of the participants experienced regularly voluntary control over dream activities and consciousness. The factor analyses of the items in the Dream Intensity Inventory resulted in three readily interpreted factors, which were labeled as the "dream quantity," "altered dream episodes," and "dream vividness" subscales, respectively. When compared with men, women participants had higher frequencies of regular dream experiences including dream awareness, nightmares, and multiple dreams, as measured by the dream quantity subscale. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The dream world in Dominica.

To the natives of the Caribbean island of Dominica, the dream is proclaimed la konpanyi la nuit (the companion of the night). Belief in dreams is grounded in diverse cultural influences, including those of the French, West African, British, and the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. In this richly imaginative dream world, myths and truths are finely interwoven to create an unwritten glossary of dream symbol interpretation. Although these interpretations have not enjoyed scientific validation, practical, historical, and psychological data are found to resonate with these traditional Dominican interpretations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)