The Role of Social Motives in Dream Content
Frederick Thomas, Katelynn Andrews
July 21, 2025 DOI: 10.47363/jpsir/2025(3)132 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Key points | Argues that fundamental social motives are relevant to dreaming and proposes that these motives shape dream content, offering a generative framework for future empirical studies. |
Abstract
The fundamental social motives framework has generated several empirical findings demonstrating the activation of a motivational system that guides conscious (live) cognition and downstream behavior in functional ways. This evolutionary view of motivation describes social cognition as an inner motivational state designed to recognize, analyze, and mobilize behaviour to manage social threats or opportunities during conscious social situations. This paper revisits the role of fundamental social motives during unconscious (remote) cognition. This paper argues that the premise of fundamental motives is worth preserving during dreaming. The connections between social motives and dream content are highlighted. This paper proposes a novice perspective that serves as a generative foundation for future empirical research.