Ancient Chinese sex symbols in dreams.

This study aimed to determine how often Chinese people dream ancestral sex symbols and to examine the association between dreaming sexual experiences and the Chinese sex symbols. The modified Typical Dreams Questionnaire with 10 additional items about the Chinese sex symbols was administered to a sample of 107 male and 241 female university students in Hong Kong. Both the prevalence and frequency rates indicated that most ancestral Chinese sex symbols do not constitute prominent dream themes in contemporary Chinese people's dreams. The Chinese genital symbols, caves and towers, were found to be relatively prominent in dreams. However, both symbols were neither positively nor negatively associated with the dream theme sexual experiences and the classical psychoanalytic sex symbols, such as snakes. In contrast, the Chinese symbols of sexual activity, such as birds eating fish, had mild, negative correlations with the dream theme sexual experiences. (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)     

Facilitating dream recall in Chinese people.

The aim of this study was to examine the frequency of dream recall in Chinese people and to develop nonintrusive procedures to facilitate dream recall. Guidelines for remembering dreams (dream recall instructions) were established based on a review of the existing literature on dream recall and its associated factors. The efficacy of the dream recall experience was explored using this procedure in neurologically healthy individuals. One hundred seventy Chinese participants were included in the study: 100 received the dream recall instructions, and 70 did not. The recall instructions were shown to be effective in triggering dream recall in the participants. (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)     

Reading books about dream interpretation: Gender differences.

The vast variety of books on dreamwork and dream interpretation suggests that a considerable percentage of the general population is interested in reading these books. Empirical research in this area is relatively scarce. The present representative survey (N = 2,019) indicated that about 8% of the general population have read about dream interpretation in order to learn more about their dreams, with women reading about dream interpretation more often than men. This gender difference was not explained by differences in dream recall frequency. In addition, single people as well as people with high nightmare frequencies read about dreams more often. Future research should focus on the possible benefits of reading about dream interpretation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Questionnaires and Diaries as Research Instruments in Dream Research: Methodological Issues

Dream questionnaires are widely used in dream research to measure dream recall frequency and various aspects of dream life. The present study has investigated the intercorrelation between questionnaire and diary measures. 285 participants completed a dream questionnaire and kept a dream diary over a two-week period. Results indicate that keeping a dream diary increased dream recall in low and medium dream recallers but decreased dream recall in high dream recallers. The correlation coefficients between questionnaire items measuring aspects of dream content and diary data were large, except for a more complex scale (realism/bizarreness). In the low recall group, however, considerably lower coefficients were found indicating that recall and sampling processes affect the response to global items measuring dream content. Using the example of testing gender differences, the findings of the present study clearly indicate that the measurement technique affects the results. Whereas sufficient internal consistency and retest reliability have been demonstrated for various dream questionnaires, future research should focus on the aspects of validity by comparing questionnaire data to dream content analysis of at least 20 dreams per person.     

Stereotypical Gender-Based Emotions Are Not Detectable in Dream Reports

This study reports on the number of feelings evoked in men and women by their dream characters as well as on the relative frequency of different kinds of feelings. Thirty-five subjects recorded 320 dreams over a two-week period, submitted dream reports and a dream log of all characters that appeared in their dreams as well as any feelings involving the characters. We found that feelings were pervasive in dreams and that they were evoked by over 80% of a subject's dream characters. Further, negative and positive emotions were balanced for both men and women. We found no significant differences in the number or in the profile of feelings in men and women's dreams. The reasons for this are discussed in terms of a continuity hypothesis across dream and wake states or, on the contrary, that feelings expressed in dreams may be independent of learned gender differences.     

Dream Recall Frequency and Dream Detail as Mediated by Personality, Behavior, and Attitude

Many studies investigated how personality, behavior, and attitude mediate dream recall, but few distinguish between measures of dream recall frequency: the number of dreams experienced in a specified time frame and dream detail: individual ratings of vividness or detailed content of dreams. This study compared undergraduates' (n = 173) self-reported dream recall frequency, and dream detail, with behaviors, attitude toward dreaming, and scores on scales of Extraversion/Introversion and Type A/B. Dream recall frequency and dream detail manifested different patterns of association in relation to behaviors, attitude and personality. Dream recall frequency was associated with the frequency of experiencing emotionally disturbing dreams and trying to interpret dreams, while detail of dreams was associated with positive attitude toward dreaming and Type B personality. Although males and females both held positive attitudes toward dreaming, females experienced more emotionally disturbing dreams and felt unable to control their dreams. Interactions between personality and gender emerged for behaviors associated with dreaming. Researchers are encouraged to differentiate between dream recall frequency and dream detail.     

Content Analysis of German Students' Dreams: Comparison to American Findings

Studies have demonstrated that general dream characteristics, such as gender ratio and familiarity of dream characters, frequency and type of social interactions and settings, and gender differences (e.g., heightened physical aggression in men's dreams), are very stable over time and across different populations. The present study included 537 dreams of 106 women and 39 men (German students). The results confirmed earlier findings regarding the stability of general dream characteristics and gender differences. Only the gender difference regarding the gender ratio of dream characters has not been replicated; this finding might be explained by the relationship status (single vs. stable partnership) of the dreamers. The comparison of large dream samples may shed light on the similarities and differences between the inner worlds of people of different countries and cultures.     

"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)     

Do we think dreams are in black and white due to memory problems?

The present study was designed to investigate whether memory processes play a role in why some persons say their dreams are black and white. The findings indicate that the percentages of black and white dreams are related negatively to color memory and dream recall frequency. When colors were recorded immediately after the dream was recorded, the percentage of black and white dream elements dropped to 2.7%. When participants were presented the option that dream colors might not be remembered, the percentage of explicit black and white dreams became very small, and the findings are thus in line with the continuity hypothesis of dreaming. Future studies might use extensive training of color memory and dream recall in order to investigate whether highly trained persons still have some dreams or dream elements that are in black and white. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of mood congruency memory effects in dream recall: A pilot study.

A methodological issue in research relating daytime mood to dream content is the question of whether mood congruency effects—that is, recalling more negative events if the current mood is more negative—also play a role in the dream recall process. This study adopted an indirect approach by testing the hypothesis that interindividual differences in mood congruency effects in a memory task carried out in the daytime correlate with mood congruency effects in dream recall (recalling more negative dream emotions, as one would predict on the basis of the current stress level or overall mood state). The findings, however, did not support the hypothesis of mood congruency effects and, thus, rule out that the findings regarding the continuity hypothesis of dreaming are biased by selective recall. Studies with different methodological approaches are necessary to validate this study’s findings. (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)     

The dreams of women with and without severe emotional behavioral premenstrual symptoms.

Women with severe premenstrual symptoms, who tend to have more mood changes during the late luteal phase of their cycle than do women with few or no symptoms, often complain of having unpleasant dreams. This study examined whether these women experienced more intense negative dream emotions during the late luteal phase of their cycle compared with women with minimal symptoms. It also examined whether there was a relationship between presleep mood and dream affect. Seventeen women participated in the study (9 with severe symptoms, 8 with minimal symptoms). Analyses of variance revealed an increase in negative dream affect and misfortunes during the late luteal phase (p     

The mechanisms of defense and dreaming.

This study examined the degree to which the phenomenological experience of dream intensity and its components are correlated with repression, splitting, and other defense mechanisms. The Dream Intensity Scale, Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, Splitting Scale, Defense Style Questionnaire-40, and other related measures were administered to 583 subjects. It is demonstrated that repression as a personality trait is inversely and moderately related to the quantitative aspect of dream intensity (i.e., frequencies of dream awareness, nightmares, and multiple dreams in a single night) but does not influence qualitative sensory experiences in dreams (e.g., hearing sounds in dreams). Moreover, the present findings indicate that the more repressed people are, the less likely they are to report splitting and immature defenses, and the less frequently they experience dreams, with the effect of repression on defenses being greater than that on dream intensity. Accordingly, if both dreams and defense mechanisms are the critical materials to work through in a treatment, then starting with the former may be conducive to the therapeutic progress by provoking less resistance from the client. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 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)     

Prediction of session process and outcome in the Hill dream model: Contributions of client characteristics and the process of the three stages.

Forty-two therapists trained in the C. E. Hill dream model (1996, 2004a) conducted single dream sessions with 157 volunteer clients. Clients who profited most from dream sessions had poor initial functioning on the problem reflected in the dream, positive attitudes toward dreams, salient dreams, low initial insight into the dream, and poor initial action ideas related to the dream. When initial stages of the session were evaluated positively, later stages were also evaluated positively. Process (therapist competence/adherence and client involvement) was positively related to session outcome. Perspective also influenced the findings, such that clients', therapists', and judges' perceptions of process related to their own, but not others', evaluations of process and session outcome. Implications of findings for dream work and research are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correction to Yu (2010).

Reports an error in "Contemporary Chinese sex symbols in dreams: Correction to Yu" by Calvin Kai-Ching Yu (Dreaming, 2010[Mar], Vol 20[1], 25-41). 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. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2010-05656-003.) [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)     

Dream content and memory processing: Dream lag effects within a single night and across several nights: A pilot study.

Dream content may reflect elements of memory processing occurring within a single night and across several days or weeks. One 19-year-old healthy female college student kept a daily diary, a sleep diary, and recorded her dreams for 2 months. A preset alarm clock allowed her to sample dreams from both early NREM-rich and late REM-rich sleep. Dreams were examined for memory elements that were similar to diary entries. There were 55 scorable dreams obtained during 25 nights. Matches between dream elements and daytime events occurred quite frequently depending on dream element. Dream characters, actions, themes, and settings more often matched daytime memories than dream objects, emotions, or events. Matches were also time dependent. Emotions appeared in dreams after the subject experienced them sooner than all other elements (1.5 days), while objects took the longest to appear in dreams (3.5 days). With respect to within night cognitive processing, 42% of scorable nights contained the same memory elements in the first and last dreams and 8% of scorable nights contained the same emotion within the same context between an early and late dream. Selected dream elements appear to reflect memory processing occurring throughout the night and over the course of several days. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dream Poetry as Dream Work

This paper explores the relationship between dream poetry and dream work by presenting a representative dream poem, along with the text of the dream that inspired it; examining some of its poetic qualities and showing how these figured in the writing of the poem; and comparing the dream writing process to dream interpretation and to Jungian active imagination work. The formal demands of poetry introduce a unique type of critical thought into the creative process that develops the dream material in ways different from other forms of dream work. Writing dream poetry differs from both dream interpretation and active imagination in important ways, but can be viewed as a form of non-interpretative dream work. These observations are probably generalizable to all forms of dream writing and dream art.