Retrospective dream components and musical preferences

Retrospective dream components endorsed on the KJP Dream Inventory were correlated with those on the Short Test of Musical Preference for 68 graduate students in counseling psychology (11 men). Among 40 correlations, 6 were significant between preferences for Heavy Metal and Dissociative avoidance dreams (.32), Dreaming that you are dreaming (.40), Dreaming that you have fallen unconscious or asleep (.41), Recurring pleasantness (.31), and Awakening abruptly from a dream (-.31); between preferences for Rap/Hip-Hop and Sexual dreams (.27); and between preferences for Jazz and Recurring pleasantness in dreams (.33). Subjects preferring Classical music reported a higher incidence of Dreams of flying (.33) and rated higher Discontentedness in dreams (-.26). The meaning of these low values awaits research based on personality inventories and full dream reports.     

Comparison of dream content of depressed vs nondepressed dreamers.

Dreams of 20 college women classified as depressed by scores on the Beck Depression Inventory were compared with those of 21 nondepressed college women. The depressed group recalled fewer dreams, had significantly shorter dream length, and displayed less anger in their dreams. They also had fewer characters in their dreams and especially fewer strangers.     

Properties of the organization of memory for people: Evidence from dream reports

Steyvers and Tenenbaum (2005) showed that semantic networks for words have three organizational properties: short average path lengths, high clustering, and power law degree distribution. If these are general properties of memory organization, they would apply to memory for other complex material, including people and relations between them. In addition, if during dreaming, characters are generated via knowledge in the dreamer’s memory, the three properties would be found in a relational network of characters in dreams. In dream reports from three individuals, two characters in the same dream were considered affiliated. Resulting social networks have the three properties, with the power law holding when low degrees are omitted. One network with a treelike outline is different from the other two. Results suggest associative memory has the three properties, and demonstrate that dream reports are a potentially valuable source for information about social networks.     

Last night I had the strangest dream: Varieties of rational thought processes in dream reports

From the neurophysiological perspective, thinking in dreaming and the quality of dream thought have been considered hallucinatory, bizarre, illogical, improbable, or even impossible. This empirical phenomenological research concentrates on testing whether dream thought can be defined as rational in the sense of an intervening mental process between sensory perception and the creation of meaning, leading to a conclusion or to taking action. From 10 individual dream journals of male participants aged 22–59 years and female participants aged 25–49 years, we delimited four dreams per journal and randomly selected five thought units from each dream for scoring. The units provided a base for testing a hypothesis that the thought processes of dream construction are rational. The results support the hypothesis and demonstrate that eight fundamental rational thought processes can be applied to the dreaming process.     

Relation of personality characteristics and color preferences

150 students responded to the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule and ranked color plates from the Luscher Color Test. Regression analysis yielded no relationship of predictive significance between the two sets of variables. An ancillary analysis using sets of random numbers in place of the color preference data yielded results basically similar to those produced in the earlier analysis. Males and females rank ordered the colors identically except for yellow, which was significantly more preferred by males than females.     

Distance education vs face-to-face classes: individual differences, course preferences and enrollment

To understand better students' preferences for enrollment in distance education over face-to-face courses, the individual difference variables of sex, age category, class level, work status, number of distance education courses taken, frequency of computing technology usage, comfort with course management software, and comfort with computing technology were examined. Analysis indicated that older students, women, and those who work full time were more likely to enroll in distance education courses. Those who had taken the most distance education courses in the past and women were more likely to express a stated preference for distance education over face-to-face classes.     

Retrospective reports of parental physical affection and parenting style: a study of Finnish twins

Individual differences in parenting behaviors are due, in part, to genetic factors. In the present study, the authors sought to determine whether the degree of genetic influence varied according to the type of parental behavior under consideration. A population-based sample of 2,334 pairs of Finnish twins provided ratings on the physical affection, control, abusiveness, and indifference shown by their father and mother during childhood. Genetic influences, shared environmental influences, and nonshared environmental influences accounted for a small-to-medium proportion (17%-30%), a small-to-large proportion (22%-44%), and a medium-to-large proportion (37%-55%) of the variance in each parenting measure, respectively. There were no significant differences in effect sizes for mothers and fathers or across the 4 types of parental behavior. The genetic results may reflect characteristic styles with which parents respond to genetically influenced behaviors of individuals (gene-environment correlations) or individual perceptions of this relationship (gene-person correlation processes). The findings have implications for intervention and prevention work with families and for interpretation of evidence for interactions between genes and parenting behaviors.     

Word associations contribute to machine learning in automatic scoring of degree of emotional tones in dream reports

Scientific study of dreams requires the most objective methods to reliably analyze dream content. In this context, artificial intelligence should prove useful for an automatic and non subjective scoring technique. Past research has utilized word search and emotional affiliation methods, to model and automatically match human judges’ scoring of dream report’s negative emotional tone. The current study added word associations to improve the model’s accuracy. Word associations were established using words’ frequency of co-occurrence with their defining words as found in a dictionary and an encyclopedia. It was hypothesized that this addition would facilitate the machine learning model and improve its predictability beyond those of previous models. With a sample of 458 dreams, this model demonstrated an improvement in accuracy from 59% to 63% (kappa = .485) on the negative emotional tone scale, and for the first time reached an accuracy of 77% (kappa = .520) on the positive scale.     

A pilot study for the analysis of dream reports using Maslow's need categories: an extension to the emotional selection hypothesis

The emotional selection hypothesis describes a cyclical process that uses dreams to modify and test select mental schemas. An extension is proposed that further characterizes these schemas as facilitators of human need satisfaction. A pilot study was conducted in which this hypothesis was tested by assigning 100 dream reports (10 randomly selected from 10 dream logs at an online web site) to one or more categories within Maslow's hierarchy of needs. A "match" was declared when at least two of three judges agreed both for category and for whether the identified need was satisfied or thwarted in the dream narrative. The interjudge reliability of the judged needs was good (92% of the reports contained at least one match). The number of needs judged as thwarted did not differ significantly from the number judged as satisfied (48 vs. 52%, respectively). The six "higher" needs (belongingness, esteem, cognitive, aesthetic, self-actualization, and transcendence) were scored significantly more frequently (81%) than were the two lowest or "basic" needs (physiological and safety, 19%). Basic needs were also more likely to be judged as thwarted, while higher needs were more likely to be judged as satisfied. These findings are discussed in the context of Maslow's hierarchy of needs as a framework for investigating theories of dream function, including the emotional selection hypothesis and other contemporary dream theories.     

Temporal characteristics in apparent movement: Omega movement vs. PHI movement

A vertical line stimulus was presented alternately at two positions on an oscillo scope face, with no interstimulus interval. Observation of this stimulus produced haphazard alternation between a number of movement percepts, which were divided into four categories: phi, omega and partial movement, and no movement. Attention to one category did not increase the proportion of time movement in that category it was reported. Proportion of time reported for each category varied differentially as a function of alternation frequency. Upper and lower displacement amplitude limits were measured as a function of frequency for phi and omega movement. Both limits for omega movement differed from those for phi movement. The results imply that phi and omega movement involve separate processing stages in the visual system.     

An investigation of the use of nocturnal dream reports as diagnostic indices in the assessment of family problem solving

This study investigated the use of series of nocturnal dream reports to diagnose patterns of family functioning. Five families (twenty one subjects) collected a total of 126 dreams. A Treatment Group consisted of two families undergoing family therapy whilst a Non-Treatment Group, comprising three families, was drawn from a population ranging from severely disturbed to superior family functioning. The manifest content of the dreams was analysed, qualitatively and quantitatively. The presenting problem, case history, therapeutic processes and outcome were unknown to the dream researcher. The family therapist was blind to the dream content and dream analysis. Each family was independently rated by the therapist and the dream researcher. The agreement between the two assessments was highly significant. In addition, the problem areas, family transactions and treatment outcome were correctly identified by the dream researcher. It was concluded that analyses of dream series reflect the problem areas encountered by a family system. Implications for therapeutic strategies are discussed.     

Effects of display characteristics and individual differences on preferences of VDT icon design

This study explored the effects of display characteristics such as target/background color combination, single/simultaneous presentation, and individual differences by sex, and design specialty on preferences of VDT icon design. The results indicated black targets (black-on-white, black-on-yellow) and black backgrounds (red-on-black, yellow-on-black) were the most popular and white targets (white-on-red, white-on-black) and white backgrounds (blue-on-white, red-on-white) were the second most popular. As for the chromatic color combinations, yellow-on-blue was the most favored. Subjects rated color combinations under single presentation higher than those under simultaneous presentation. Women rated purplish targets and rated purplish and blue backgrounds higher than men. Subjects with design background favored black more either as a target or background, but they favored turquoise less than those without design background.     

Stability of older adults' preferences for life-sustaining medical treatment.

The use of instructional advance directives assumes that preferences for life-sustaining medical treatment remain stable over time and across changes in life condition. A sample of 332 older adults recorded their preferences for 4 life-sustaining treatments in 9 illness scenarios. These preferences were elicited again 1 and 2 years after the original interview. Overall, preferences for life-sustaining treatment were moderately stable over time, but stability varied significantly across judgments. Preferences were most stable for illness scenarios that were most and least serious and for decisions to refuse treatment. Age, gender, education, and prior completion of an advance directive were all related to preference stability, and evidence indicated that declines in physical or psychological functioning resulted in decreased interest in life-sustaining treatment.     

A field study of demographic characteristics and job attribute preferences of new part-time employees

This paper reports on a study of the demographic characteristics and job attribute preferences of 336 newly hired part-time employees in retail jobs. The results of the research challenge many of the traditional assumptions about the job preferences of part-time workers.     

Memory as resistance, and the telling of a dream.

Traditional analytic orientation to memory as subject to repression has overshadowed examination of some of the ego's other activities bearing on memory. The author examines the defensive use of memory with the analytic goal of maximum autonomous access for the patient to the ego's previously unconscious management of intrapsychic conflict. A close scrutiny of an example of this in the form of the telling of a dream explores this resistance process and illustrates a technical approach. Some aspects of this perspective are considered in relation to traditional approaches to dream material. Certain technical priorities for differing clinical settings are discussed.