Disclaimed Activity in Dreams of Chicanos and Anglos

Abstract

To test the hypothesis that Chicanos would report their dreams in terms which relied more heavily on a passive approach to life, 109 Chicano college students (43 males and 66 females) and 136 Anglo college students (61 males and 75 females) were asked to submit written reports of their dreams. The specific type of passivity investigated was "disclaimed activity" in which the dreamer negates the existence of a self-conscious and knowing actor. This is done by attributing the responsibility for the activity in the dreams to someone else, to parts of the body, to parts of the mind, to fate, and to other objects. The passive approach would also manifest itself in a greater number of crossing out what was reported as a means of taking back what was already written. The Chicanos used significantly disclaimed activity as well as more crossouts than did the Anglos. The findings were discussed in the context of other cross-cultural research and with a warning about understanding "passivity" in a pejorative sense.