Abstract Index Conference Index

ABSTRACT

"Relationships between Dream Content and Dream Orientation."

Philip H. King, Ph.D.

Philip King is Professor of Quantitative Methods and Psychology at Hawaii Pacific University, where he teaches a course on dreams. His research areas include cultural and gender differences in dreams, dreams of health care professionals, factors in dream orientation, and dream manifestations of second language learning.

4. SUMMARY OF PRESENTATION

600 dreams from 100 subjects were content-analyzed. Correspondences were tested between dream content categories (e.g. emotions) and dream orientation factors (e.g. discussing dreams.) Associations among dream content categories previously treated separately were investigated, as were computerized word searches as a way of approximating results obtained from dream content coding.

5. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

(A)

(i) To learn the ways in which conscious dream orientation factors are associated with the Hall - Van de Castle dream content categories.

(ii) To learn the empirical associations within dreams among Hall - Van de Castle
dream content categories.

(iii) To learn the degree to which computerized word searches can approximate dream content findings obtained by conventional coding procedures in the Hall - Van de Castle dream content analysis system.

(B)

(i) Which dream content categories in the Hall - Van de Castle system are related to dreamers' waking interest in dreams and actions with respect to dreams, and how are they related?

(ii) How are the major Hall - Van de Castle dream content categories associated with one another empirically?

(iii) How accurate are computerized word searches at measuring the presence of emotions in dreams, compared to conventional dream coding procedures?

Paper description: "Relationships between Dream Content and Dream Orientation"

A computerized system for computing dream category findings for sets and series of dreams with established norms (the DreamBank) has been developed and made available to all via the Internet (Schneider, A. & W. G. Domhoff, 1999).

Dream orientation, defined as a combination of interest in, valuing, and acting in regard to one's own dreams, has been shown to be a function of culture and social experience (King, 1992), stress, trauma and emotional support, and competence and experience in processing dreams and psychological need for resolution of emotional concerns (King, 1995; King, 1996).

Work to date has not linked dream content with dream orientation. Except for one student paper (Seaberg, 1998)), and that only in the content category of emotions, work has not been done to compare word search techniques with standard content coding techniques. Nor has work has been done to determine the associations among different content category patterns within a set or series of dreams - for example emotions and striving or characters and misfortunes.

One hundred students from Hawaii Pacific University voluntarily completed a dreams orientation questionnaire, and recorded their dreams during semester-long dreams courses. With the students' permission, six dreams were picked at random from each of their dream journals. The 600 dreams were coded for emotions, striving, good fortune and misfortune, using both the Hall - Van de Castle coding procedures and a key words search procedure.

Parallel analyses were performed using the dream content data produced by these two procedures, to determine if the easier and simpler word search produces essentially the same findings as the established coding procedure. Dream content data were tested against the dream orientation data. It was hypothesized that there would be systematic associations between dream content, on the one hand, and dream orientation and emotional experience, on the other. (For example, both positive and negative emotions in dreams should be positively associated with dream orientation, and good fortune should be positively related to emotional support in waking life.)

Finally, relationships among dream content categories were determined. (This is something that the DreamBank content analysis routines do not do, as the supporting software is dedicated to the comparison of the same content categories across dream sets or series, not the association of content category patterns within sets or series.) It was hypothesized, for example, that good fortune would be positively associated with positive emotions, and striving positively associated with both positive and negative emotions.

Findings will be discussed in terms of: (1) relationships between dream content and dream orientation in waking life; (2) the usefulness of word searches as a substitute for dream coding; and (3) the associations among Hall - Van de Castle categories

References

Domhoff, G. W. (1996) Finding meaning in dreams: A Quantitative Approach. New York: Plenum Press.

Domhoff, G.W. (1999) "Drawing Theoretical Implications from Quantitative Studies of dream Content: Paper prepared for a panel entitled "The Dream 100 Years Later: New facts, new Theories," at the annual meetings of the American Psychiatric Association, May 20, 1999, Washington, D.C.

Domhoff, G. W. (2000). "Ideas and Findings toward a Neurocognitive Theory of Dreams: Why Cognitive Scientists should notice and Emerging Synthesis in the Study of Dreams." Department of Psychology, University of California at Santa Cruz: unpublished manuscript.

Hall, C. (1953). The Meaning of Dreams. New York: Harper and Row.

Hall, C. and R. Van de Castle (1966). The Content Analysis of Dreams. New York: Appleton-Century-Croft.

Hobson, J. A. (1988). The Dreaming Brain. New York: Basic Books.

King, P. (1992). "Dream Attributes, Dream Orientation, Culture and Social Experience."
Paper presented at the ninth annual international conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams, University of California at Santa Cruz.

King, P. (1995). "Stress, Trauma and Emotional Support as Factors in Dream Orientation." Paper presented at the twelfth annual international conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams, New York City.

King, P. (1996). "Experiential Factors in Dream Orientation." Paper presented at the thirteenth annual international conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams, Oakland, California.

King, P., Schneider, A., and P. Thornquist. (1999). "Sampling Methods for Identifying Gender Differences in Dream Content." Paper presented at the sixteenth annual international conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams, Santa Cruz, California.

Schneider, A., and W. G. Domhoff. (1999). The quantitative study of dreams (Web site). Available: http://www.dreamresearch.net/

Seaberg, I. (1998). "Comparative Evaluation of the Coding System versus Searches." Department of Psychology, University of California at Santa Cruz: unpublished manuscript.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS, ADDRESSES, CONFERENCES AND REPORTS

"Teaching Dreams: Ten Years of a College Dreams Course." Address to be presented at the seventeenth annual conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams, Washington, D.C., July 5, 2000.

With Adam Schneider and Patric Thornquist, "Sampling Methods for Identifying Gender Differences in Dream Content." Presentation at the sixteenth annual international conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams, Santa Cruz, California, July 7, 1999.

"Teaching Dream Courses and Developing Curricula." Panel presentation at the sixteenth annual international conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams,
Santa Cruz, California, July 8, 1999.

"All about Dreams." Talk given to Yo Puedo, the Migrant Workers Educational Enrichment Program, University of California at Santa Cruz, July 9, 1999

with Matthew Kaplan and Patric Thronquist, "Dream Manifestations of Karate Training and Experience." Paper submitted to the International Journal of Sports Psychology, 1999.

with Teresa Lane, "Second Language Learning and Language in Dreams." Paper presented at the fifteenth annual international conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams, Oahu, Hawaii, June 26, 1998.
P. King Vitae: page 4

with Patric Thornquist, Andy Kirby, and Matthew Kaplan, "A Quantitative Content-Analysis of Martial Arts Practitioners' Most Recent Dreams." Paper presented at the fifteenth annual international conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams, Oahu, Hawaii, June 23, 1998.

with Samantha Maren, "A Quantitative Analysis of Precognitive Dreams: Internet Research vs. Traditional Survey Technique." Paper presented at the fifteenth annual international conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams, Oahu, Hawaii, June 23, 1998.

Organizer, Host and Moderator, "Dreams and Holistic Healing," a regional conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams in cooperation with Hawaii Pacific University, Oahu, Hawaii, September 13, 1997.

with Matthew Kaplan, "Psychological Effects of the Martial Arts: Dream Manifestations of Karate Training and Experience." Paper presented at the fourteenth annual international conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams, Asheville, North Carolina, June 1997.

"Experiential Factors in Dream Orientation." Paper presented at the thirteenth annual international conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams, Oakland, California, July 1996.

with G. G. Gaydos, "Team Teaching: A Strategy for Contextual Education." The College Quarterly, Winter 1995.

"Stress, Trauma and Emotional Support as Factors in Dream Orientation." Paper presented at the twelfth annual international conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams, New York City, June, 1995.

"Nurses' Dreams and Stress." Paper presented to the Nursing Honors
Society Research Symposium, Hawaii Pacific University, December 7, 1994.

"The Uses of Dreams." Presentation to the Residents of Hale Ilima
dormitory, University of Hawaii at Manoa, November 17, 1994.

"Healing the Healer: The Functions and Uses of Nurses' Dreams."
Paper read at the eleventh annual international conference of
the Association for the Study of Dreams, Leiden University, The
Netherlands, July, 1994.

Moderator, Paper Session on Post-Traumatic Stress and Nightmares. Eleventh annual international conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams, Leiden University, The Netherlands, July, 1994.
P. King Vitae: page 5

"Culture, Gender and Dreams." Presentation given at Cleveland State
University, January 14, 1993, sponsored by the Department of Anthropology and the Anthropology Association.

"Anger: Myths and Realities." Address given to the Honolulu Board of Realtors Mediation Committee, November 10, 1992.

"Dream Attributes, Dream Orientation, Culture and Social Experience."
Paper read at the ninth annual international conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams, University of California at Santa Cruz, June 27, 1992.

"Dreams, Gender and Culture." Presentation given at the Faculty Forum, Hawaii Pacific University, November 8, 1991.

"Social and Cultural Correlates of Dream Dynamics." Paper read at the eighth annual international conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams, University of Virginia, June 29, 1991.

"Democracy and Capitalism: The Ideas of Peter Berger." Talk given at the Noontime Culture Break Discussion Series, "The Good Society: Humanities and the American Promise." Hawaii Pacific University and the Hawaii Endowment for the Humanities, March 13, 1991.

"Discrimination: A Classroom Corrective." Bridges, September-October 1986, V.4, n.1, 23-24.

with T. Hall, "Communication Strategies in Recruiting Participants for a Cancer Risk Reduction Trial in Hawaii". Presentation at the Fifth National Cancer Communications Conference, Washington, D.C., February, 1984.

"Skin Cancer/Melanoma Knowledge and Behavior in Hawaii: Changes During a Community-Based Cancer Control Program." In C. Mettlin and G. Murphy, Eds., Progress in Cancer Control IV: Research in the Cancer Center. New York, Alan R. Liss, 1983.

with G. Murfin and T. Hall, "Issues in Evaluation Research." Presentation at the joint meeting of the Association of Community Cancer Centers/American Association of Cancer Institutes, Washington, D.C., January, 1982.

"Mental Health and the Social Environment". Guest lectures in the politics of environment and health courses, School of Public Health, University of Hawaii, 1978, 1979.

"A Survey of Career Education Needs in Hawaii's Public Schools."
Report to the Hawaii State Department of Education, 1978.
P. King Vitae: page 6

"The Evaluation of Life Experience for Academic Credit - A Proposal for the Development of a Model." Joint Center for Community Studies, Los Angeles, 1974.

"Social Values and Preferences on the Waianae Coast: A Survey of Resident Opinion." Waianae Coast Resident Research and Planning Center, Oahu, Hawaii, 1972.

"The Ideas of B. F. Skinner and their Implications for Social Planning and Policy". Presentation given on Hawaii Public Television, Course on Futuristics, University of Hawaii, 1971.

"An Evaluation of the Inter-Island Tour Experience and Its Implications for Interculturation at the East-West Center." East-West Center, Honolulu, 1970.

"Role Play Simulation and Self-Confrontation: Training and Testing Cross-Cultural Interaction Skills." Asia Training Center, University of Hawaii/Agency for International Development, 1969.

"Cross-Cultural Training at the Asia Training Center: An Evaluation." Asia Training Center, University of Hawaii/Agency for International Development, 1969.

"Research in Training for Advisory Roles in Other Cultures." Research and Technology Briefs, February 1967, v.5, n.2, 1-6.

"Cross-Cultural Interaction Skill Training: A Field Test of the Self-Confrontation Technique." AMRL TR 67-128, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, 1967.with H.T. Eachus, "Acquisition and Retention of Cross-Cultural Interaction Skills through Self-Confrontation." AMRL TR 66-08, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, 1966.