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The nature of dreams
- Psychological theories
- Freud's
psycholoanalytic
theory
- Freud - "the interpretation of dreams
is the royal road to a knowledge of the
unconscious activities of the mind"
- Freud proposed that dreams
have meanings that manifest
themselves through symbols in
the content of the dream
- saw dreams as being the
channel for psychic/sexual
energy which he called libido
- energy is like an
electrical current;
could build up and
try to find release
- if not released in a satisfying way, it
could result in physical or mental pain
- energy is like an
electrical current;
could build up and
try to find release
- aspects of
dreams
Annotations:
- Wish fulfilment - a dream may be seen as an expression of unconscious wishes; if the desire for something is socially / personally prohibited, it may present itself in a dream, Dreamwork - dreams often symbolically represent something that is prohibited, Manifest content - what can be remember and reported, Latent content - hidden part of the dream; often found in symbols, Condensation - 2 or more ideas may be represented by one object, word or situation, Displacement - in the dream, a person / object is replaced with another, Representation - thoughts are changed into images,
- theory is
difficult to
falsify
- theory is based on culturally /
historically biased sample of neurotic
Viennese women; can't generalise
- Freud - "the interpretation of dreams
is the royal road to a knowledge of the
unconscious activities of the mind"
- Cartwright's
problem solving
theory
- Cartwright - dreams
reflect our major
emotional concerns
- dreams are the body's way of reviewing,
revising, rehearsing, and repairing
present and past experiences
- dreams provide
coping strategies for
emotional problems
- Barrett (1993) studied students
who were instructed to solve a
problem; a panel of judges found
50% of students dreamt a solution
- however, it's only 50%
- however, it's only 50%
- Cartwright - dreams
reflect our major
emotional concerns
- Freud's
psycholoanalytic
theory
- Neurobiological theories
- Activation
synthesis
- sleep is prompted by
natural cycles of activity in
the brain; REM and NREM
- during sleep, body cycles between
NREM and REM; dreams occur in
REM; REM is a mixture of brain states
of excitement and muscular immobility
- activiation
- Hobson & McCarley (1977) - during
REM sleep, the brainstem generates
random signals that are indistinguishable
from external stimuli
- Hobson & McCarley (1977) - during
REM sleep, the brainstem generates
random signals that are indistinguishable
from external stimuli
- synthesis
- bizzare nature of
dreams is due to the
mixing of the electrical
signals from the brain
stem with stored
images in memory
- bizzare nature of
dreams is due to the
mixing of the electrical
signals from the brain
stem with stored
images in memory
- Hobson (1988) supports activation
synthesis; he found that PP's' REM
sleep and dreaming both increased
when they were infected with drugs
that increased acetylcholine
- sleep is prompted by
natural cycles of activity in
the brain; REM and NREM
- Reverse
learning
- Critch & Mitchison (1983) -
reverse learning model relates
to the brain switching off during
the dreaming process
- reverse learning model helps us
dream in order to forget; large amounts
of info received during the day makes
the cortex unable to function without
'parasitic' thoughts starting to develop
- unwanted connections in the
cortical networks during REM sleep
are destroyed by impulses
- parasitic thoughts are represented by
the content of the dreams as they are
then erased from memory
- parasitic thoughts are represented by
the content of the dreams as they are
then erased from memory
- unwanted connections in the
cortical networks during REM sleep
are destroyed by impulses
- Critch & Mitchison (1983) -
reverse learning model relates
to the brain switching off during
the dreaming process
- Activation
synthesis
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