How You Measure Is What You Get: Differences in Self- and External Ratings of Emotional Experiences in Home Dreams
The American Journal of Psychology August 21, 2017 Pilleriin Sikka, Diana Feilhauer, Katja Valli et al. 63 citations
How emotions in dreams are measured can lead to opposite conclusions about whether dreams are mostly positive or negative. Over three weeks, 44 participants reported their dreams each morning and rated their own emotional experiences using a standard emotion scale. Two external judges rated the same 552 dream reports using the same scale. Self-ratings showed dreams as more emotional and more positive, with most dreams rated positively. External ratings showed most dreams as negatively valenced. The two methods partially agreed on negative emotions but diverged sharply on positive emotions. This suggests negative emotional experiences may be measured more reliably than positive ones, and the two methods may capture different phenomena and should be used together.