Abstract Index Conference Index

ABSTRACT

1. Paper, 20 minute oral presentation

 2. Boundariness and Happiness Correlates of Dream Telling and Listening

 3. Mark Blagrove, PhD, Jenny Clark, and Bethan Rees

Department of Psychology

University of Wales Swansea, SA2 8PP

 email m.t.blagrove@swansea.ac.uk

 Mark Blagrove is President-Elect of ASD and a consulting editor of the journal Dreaming. He researches into the psychology of dreaming and also sleep deprivation at the University of Wales Swansea, where he teaches a course on sleep and dreams.

 4. Boundariness is a correlate of dream recall frequency. Instead we correlate boundariness and happiness with the frequency of telling dreams, and of listening to dream reports. These variables are then related to frequency of telling, or listening to, film reports, in order to generalise the boundariness - dream recall correlation.

 5 Learning objectives: i) To recognise the theoretical and empirical justifications for relationships between dream recall frequency and scores on boundariness and happiness questionnaires; ii) To understand how dream recall may be related to dream telling and listening to others' dreams; iii) To recognise the importance of attempting to generalise the boundariness - dream recall relationship to dream telling and listening, and also to telling and listening to reports of films.

 Evaluation questions: i) What are the theoretical and empirical justifications for the relationship between dream recall frequency and scores of boundariness and happiness? ii) Is dream recall frequency related to frequency of dream telling and of listening to others' dreams? iii) Can the the boundariness - dream recall relationship be generalised to telling and listening to reports of dreams, and also to telling and listening to reports of films?

 8. Abstract

Hartmann (1991) found that people who scored on the thick end of the Boundary Questionnaire report fewer dreams and daydreams, and less bizarre dreams, than do people who are thin boundaried. In order to further generalise the BQ - Dream Recall Frequency (DRF) correlation we correlate in a large sample of participants BQ with Dream Telling Frequency (DTF) and Dream Listening Frequency (DLF). Whether people who talk about or listen to accounts of dreams are more likely to talk about or listen to accounts of films is then assessed, and these film variables are correlated with BQ. Finally, as writing about emotional experiences in diaries is claimed to have an emotionally therapeutic effect (Bootzin, 1997; Pennebaker, 1997), we investigate whether dream and film reporting, and dream diary keeping, are correlated with happiness.  

 Bootzin, R.R. (1997). Examining the theory and clinical utility of writing about emotional experiences. Psychological Science, 8, 167-169.

 Hartmann, E. (1991). Boundaries in the mind: A new psychology of personality. New York: Basic Books.

Pennebaker, J.W. (1997). Writing about emotional experiences as a therapeutic process. Psychological Science, 8, 162-166. 

9. Mark Blagrove.

    MA (Experimental Psychology)  Cambridge University, 1979-82

    PhD The structuralist analysis of dream series, Brunel University, London, 1985-89.

    Research Fellow, Loughborough University Sleep Laboratory, 1989-91

    Lecturer in Psychology, University of Wales Swansea, 1991-present.

    Consulting Editor for Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied and Dreaming

     President-Elect ASD 2000-01