The Production of Associated Dream Imagery Following Exposure to a High Impact Event
Shayne Anne Lynch
eCite Digital Repository 2010 DOI: 10.25959/23222267 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key findings | Argues that establishing a link between waking stimuli and dream content has been hampered by small samples, inconsistent methods and content scales, conceptual confusion over metaphor, and reliance on retrospective non-experimental studies. Proposes that future research use experimental paradigms with emotionally arousing, personally meaningful stimuli and assess dream imagery through literal, associative, and thematic measures based on stimulus elaboration. |
Abstract
The purpose of this review is to identify and propose solutions for the conceptual and methodological problems that arise in attempting to establish a relationship between a prior waking stimulus and subsequent dream content. There have been a number of approaches used to determine whether there is a link between waking experience and dream content. The results have been equivocal and have demonstrated problems associated with sample size, collection methods, content scales, conceptual differences (e.g. figurative and explanatory metaphor) and a preponderance of retrospective interpretation and non-experimental studies. The type of stimulus, particularly in terms of emotional arousal and personal meaningfulness, seems to be an important consideration for experimental research. These findings align with research into waking memory and the impact of emotion. Not surprisingly then, dream research looking at the content of dreams following traumatic events has proven to be valuable in studying relationships between waking experience and dream imagery. The continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2003) might predict literal incorporation of events in dreams but figurative metaphor may also be manifested in dream content. Bokert (1967) has provided a guide to assessing imagery associated with the waking stimulus, through a wide variety of associative measures. Hartmann (2001) has conceptualized and measured dream imagery as explanatory metaphor with the pictorial metaphor representing the emotional activation. However the figurative aspects of metaphor within dreams have remained elusive to researchers. Common dream themes have been described as examples of primary metaphor and may offer another approach to studying metaphor in dream content. Future research into dream imagery might adopt an experimental paradigm for studying the impact of an emotionally arousing waking stimulus, using a range of literal, associative and thematic measures based on the elaboration of the stimulus for the assessment of the dream imagery. This approach could assist with addressing both the conceptual and methodological limitations in previous research.