Object Representations in Dreams of Chicanos and Anglos

The relationship between the cultures to which persons belong and their internalized object representations as revealed by manifest dream content was investigated. It was hypothesized that because Chicanos are from a more nurturing culture than Anglos, they would represent persons in their dreams as more differentiated, articulated, and integrated, with more benevolent interactions. 50 Chicano and 50 Anglo university students (25 of each gender in each culture) reported a total of 555 dreams that were scored according to the Concept of the Object Scale (Blatt, Brenneis, Schimek & Glick, 1976). The Scale applies developmental principles concerning the three dimensions of differentiation, articulation, and integration to the study of human responses given to the Rorschach. This research applied the Scale to the manifest content of the subjects' reported dreams. The cross-cultural hypothesis was disconfirmed; however, there were strong findings concerning gender. Gender differences across culture were statistically significant in each developmental dimension, ranging from females representing more humans, who are better articulated and more benevolently interactive (p < .01) to females reporting more intentional, congruent actions and more interactions (p < .05). The only cross-cultural finding was that Anglos represent more action in their dreams than Chicanos (p < .05). Within the sample of acculturated Chicano subjects, genders were polarized to a much greater extent than in the Anglo sample. Implications of the findings for theoretical understanding of gender and cultural differences in object representations are discussed.