Reliability in dream research: a methodological note.
Michael Schredl, Arthur Funkhouser, Claude M. Cornu, H P Hirsbrunner, Marcel Bahro
Consciousness and Cognition December 1, 2001 DOI: 10.1006/ccog.2001.0522 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Reliability study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Elderly, healthy persons |
| Duration | 4 or 22 weeks retest intervals |
| Key points | Dream recall and dream length are stable, but bizarreness and emotional tone fluctuate greatly within individuals, requiring about 20 dreams collected quickly for reliable measurement. |
Abstract
The coefficients of internal consistency and retest reliability had been rarely investigated within the methodology of dream content analysis. Analyzing a dream series of elderly, healthy persons obtained from weekly telephone interviews, the internal consistency of a series of 20 dreams and retests after 4 or 22 weeks, respectively, had been computed. The findings indicate that dream recall and dream length are quite stable, but dream characteristics such as bizarreness and emotional tone underlie large intraindividual fluctuations. In order to obtain reliable measures for these variables which will be important for correlational studies, including waking-life trait measures, one has to obtain as many dreams as possible (about 20) in a very short time period. Further research is needed to extend the present findings to diary dreams and laboratory dreams.
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- The route to recall a dream: theoretical considerations and methodological implications. Psychological Research June 1, 2023
- Is dream recall underestimated by retrospective measures and enhanced by keeping a logbook? A review. Consciousness and Cognition May 1, 2015
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