The Other as a Nightmare: The Israeli-Arab Encounter as Reflected in Children's Dreams in Israel and the West Bank
Political Psychology September 1, 1989 DOI: 10.2307/3791354 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative content analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 212 |
| Population | Jewish and Arab fifth to seventh graders living in various settings in Israel and the West Bank |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Citations | 45 |
| Key findings | Argues that the dreams support Calvin Hall's continuity hypothesis: the prevalence of encounter dreams, their stereotypical characterization of the other, and the abundance of aggression and violence indicate that the children have internalized the conflict's content and affective tone. |
Abstract
More than 2000 written dream reports were collected from Jewish and Arab fifth to seventh graders living in various settings in Israel and the West Bank. From this general dream sample 212 encounter dreams (dealing with the other side on the manifest level) were extracted. The content analysis of the dreams supports Calvin Hall's continuity hypothesis: judging from the prevalence of encounter dreams, their stereotypical characterization of the other, and the overabundance of aggression and violence in their interactions, it appears that the children under study have internalized the contents of the conflict as well as its affective tone. While the major axis of comparison is Jews vs Arabs, some group variations within each sector are noted as well. In an attempt to let the dreams speak for themselves the presentation is embedded with many illustrations from the data.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nonwaking Responses to Waking Stressors: Dreams and Nightmares1 Men from the cohort eligible for military duty during the Vietnam Conflict, varying in... | 1990 | Survey interview study | n = 442 |
| Communing with the Gods: The Dreaming Brain in Cross-cultural Perspective | 2011 | Phenomenological study | |
| Partial memory reinstatement while (lucid) dreaming to change the dream environment. Lucid dreamers | 2020 | Qualitative study | |
| Strange themes in pandemic dreams: Insomnia was associated with more negative, anxious and death‐related dreams during the COVID‐19 pandemic Global survey participants | 2022 | Longitudinal mixed-methods study | n = 2,240 |
| Dreamers as agents making strategizing efforts exemplify core aggregate of executive function in non-lucid dreaming Archived cross-cultural dreams | 2012 | Qualitative study using grounded theory |
Citations in the library
Cited by 3
- War‐Related Dream Themes in Germany from 1956 to 2000 Political Psychology March 23, 2006
- The threat simulation theory of the evolutionary function of dreaming: Evidence from dreams of traumatized children. Consciousness and Cognition March 1, 2005
- The Role of Culture, Violence, and Personal Factors Affecting Dream Content Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology March 1, 1998