Examining Effects of Personality Functioning and Defense in Aggressive Dream Narratives
Faculty Mentor
Philip Wong
Major/Area of Research
Clinical Psychology
Description
Background: Psychoanalytic theory traditionally supposes that dreams are a window into an individual's unconscious conflicts, meaning that dreams are discontinuous with one’s waking life concerns and may reveal what drives their defense; this is known as the compensation theory of dreaming. Contemporary dream research has been influenced by Hall (1972) and Domhoff (2011), who argue that dream content is continuous with one’s waking-life concerns; this is known as the continuity hypothesis of dreaming.
Objective: The compensatory and continuity standpoints suggest opposing directions to a clinician who would aim to utilize dream reports in psychotherapy. Based on compensation, a clinician should consider the unconscious meaning behind the content of the dream narrative. Based on continuity, the clinician should be concerned with the manifest content itself. Aggression in dream narratives was chosen as the construct to utilize for further investigation of the compensation/continuity debate because of its centrality to dream narratives in both clinical and normative populations. Materials and methods: A seven-day dream diary was collected from participants and coded using the Hall and Van de Castle dream content coding system; demographic data and questionnaires, including the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-40) and DSM-5 Levels of Personality Functioning (DLOPFQ) – Short Form, were administered. Data analysis consisted of preliminary analyses, logistic regression analyses, and multiple linear regression.
Results: The predictive relationship between immature defense style and the likelihood of being the aggressor in aggressive dream narratives was significant and positive. That is, it was found that the more immaturely defended someone was, the more likely they were to report being the aggressor in their aggressive dream narratives.
Conclusion: Based on the findings of the present analysis, it appears that the relationship between defense style and aggressor role in dream narratives is more in line with the continuity hypothesis than the compensatory theory.
Examining Effects of Personality Functioning and Defense in Aggressive Dream Narratives
Background: Psychoanalytic theory traditionally supposes that dreams are a window into an individual's unconscious conflicts, meaning that dreams are discontinuous with one’s waking life concerns and may reveal what drives their defense; this is known as the compensation theory of dreaming. Contemporary dream research has been influenced by Hall (1972) and Domhoff (2011), who argue that dream content is continuous with one’s waking-life concerns; this is known as the continuity hypothesis of dreaming.
Objective: The compensatory and continuity standpoints suggest opposing directions to a clinician who would aim to utilize dream reports in psychotherapy. Based on compensation, a clinician should consider the unconscious meaning behind the content of the dream narrative. Based on continuity, the clinician should be concerned with the manifest content itself. Aggression in dream narratives was chosen as the construct to utilize for further investigation of the compensation/continuity debate because of its centrality to dream narratives in both clinical and normative populations. Materials and methods: A seven-day dream diary was collected from participants and coded using the Hall and Van de Castle dream content coding system; demographic data and questionnaires, including the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-40) and DSM-5 Levels of Personality Functioning (DLOPFQ) – Short Form, were administered. Data analysis consisted of preliminary analyses, logistic regression analyses, and multiple linear regression.
Results: The predictive relationship between immature defense style and the likelihood of being the aggressor in aggressive dream narratives was significant and positive. That is, it was found that the more immaturely defended someone was, the more likely they were to report being the aggressor in their aggressive dream narratives.
Conclusion: Based on the findings of the present analysis, it appears that the relationship between defense style and aggressor role in dream narratives is more in line with the continuity hypothesis than the compensatory theory.