Abstract Index Conference Index

ABSTRACT

TYPE: Research Workshop

TIME: 2.5 hours

TITLE: Advanced Methods for Scientific Studies of Long Dream Journals

LEADER: G. William Domhoff, Ph.D.; Research Professor, University of California,
Santa Cruz

BIOGRAPHY: G. William Domhoff has been involved in dream research for 40 years. He is the
author of numerous articles and books, including Finding Meaning in Dreams
(Plenum, 1996) and "A New Neurocognitive Theory of Dreams," Dreaming
Vol. 11, No. 1, 2001

e-mail: domhoff@cats.ucsc.edu

SUMMARY OF PRESENTATION: This scientifically oriented workshop will show participants how to do sophisticated new content analysis studies using dreambank.net and dreamresearch.net. It will use two new studies of lengthy dream journals to demonstrate what is possible and present new findings.

THREE LEARNING OBJECTIVES: (1) understanding principles of content analysis; (2) learning new methods and findings; (3) learning how to do a study that contributes to a theory of dream meaning.

THREE QUESTIONS: (1) why is a large number of dreams necessary for good studies? (2) how can mere word searches help find patterns in dreams? (3) why is it necessary to interview friends and relatives of the dreamer as well as the dreamer to have a convincing study?
AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS: Overhead Projector

SCHEDULE RESTRICTIONS: None really, but Thursday any time for Friday morning would be best in case someone wants individual follow-up for help with a specific study.

ABSTRACT: This workshop will show people how to do good scientific studies of dream content using the tools provided by dreambank.net and dreamresearch.net. It will suggest how to find patterns in a long dream journal, as well as ways to search for metaphoric expressions in dreams. It will present an overall approach to verifying inferences developed on the basis of blind quantitative analyses. It also will deal with specifics concerning sample size, selection of coding categories, and types of data analysis.

WORKSHOP QUALIFICATIONS: This workshop is not about dream work or dream education or clinical work with dreams, so I don't think questions of "credentials" are relevant beyond my Ph.D., 40 years of dream research, and 38 years of experience teaching people scientific ways to test their ideas about dream meaning. The name of the method is "content analysis." Participants will be asked to look at a few anonymous written dream reports and learn what codings to assign to elements with the reports. I have read and accept the ethical code, and only wish that it contained a statement, like the American Psychological Association's ethical code does, stating that researchers have an ethical obligation to provide their raw data to other researchers on request once they have published an analysis of those data and made them anonymous. This would help ASD realize one of its objectives, furthering the scientific understanding of dreams.