The impact of culture, violent environment, gender, and age on dream content was studied among 205 children in three groups: a Palestinian group living in a violent environment (n = 80), and Palestinian (n = 45) and Finnish (n = 80) groups living in peaceful areas. They were matched for age (7-12) and gender. The method used was a 7-day dream diary in which the participants recorded the dreams they recalled every morning. Results showed that living in a violent environment affected dream content more than did culture and personal factors. The results confirmed our hypothesis that a violent and dangerous environment was associated with mundane, intensive, and vivid dreams incorporating persecution and aggression themes. As an indication of individualistic versus collective dream characteristics, results showed that the dreams of the Palestinian children from Gaza incorporated more "external scenes" of anxiety, whereas the Finnish children's dreams had more "inner anxiety scenes."
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Antrobus, J. S. (1986). Dreaming: Cortical activation and perceptual thresholds. Journal of Mind and Behavior, 7, 193-212.
2.
Bilu, Y. (1989). The other as a nightmare: The Israeli-Arab encounter as reflected in children's dreams in Israel and the West Bank. Political Psychology, 10, 365-389.
3.
Brenneis, C. B. , & Roll, S. (1975). Ego modalities in the manifest dreams of male and female Chicanos. Psychiatry, 38, 172-185.
4.
Brenneis, C. B. , & Roll, S. (1976). Dream patterns in Anglo and Chicano young adults. Psychiatry, 39, 280-291.
5.
B'Tselem . (1993). Human rights violations in the occupied territories 1992/1993. Jerusalem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories.
6.
Cartwright, R. D. (1986). Affect and dream work from an information processing point of view. Journal of Mind, 7,411-427.
7.
Cartwright, R. D. (1991). Dreams that work: The relations of dream incorporation to adaption to stressful events. Psychological point of view. Dreaming, 1, 3-9.
8.
Cartwright, R. D. (1992). "Masochism" in dreaming and its relationship to depression. Dreaming, 2, 79-84.
9.
Cohen, S. , & Golan, D. (1991). The interrogation of Palestinians during the Intifada: Ill-treatment, "moderate physical pressure " or torture. Jerusalem: B'Tselem.
10.
Crammer, M. (1991). Dream translation: A nonassociative method for understanding the dream. Dreaming, 1, 147-159.
11.
Dawud-Noursi, S. , Serpell, R., Steinberg, K., & Greenbaum, C. (1997). Maternal ideas and child-rearing practices of boys and girls across three generations of Palestinians. In E. El-Sarraj (Ed.), Palestinians in transition: Rehabilitation and community development. (pp. 333-334). Gaza, Palestine: Gaza Community Mental Health Programme Publications.
12.
Dittman, A. T. , & Moore, H. C. (1957). Disturbances in dreams as related to Peyotism among Navajo. American Anthropologist, 59, 642-649.
13.
Erikson, E. H. (1954). The dream specimen of psychoanalysis. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 2, 5-56.
14.
Fiss, H. (1986). An empirical foundation for a self psychology of dreaming. Journal of Mind and Behavior, 7, 161-192.
15.
Foulkes, D. (1971). Longitudinal studies of dreams in children. In J. H. Masserman (Ed.), Dream dynamics, science and psychoanalysis. (Vol. 19, pp. 48-71). New York: Grune & Stratton.
16.
Foulkes, D. (1982). Children's dreams. Longitudinal studies. New York: John Wiley.
17.
Foulkes, D. (1985). Dreaming: A cognitive-psychological analysis. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
18.
Foulkes, D. (1990). Dreaming and consciousness. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 2, 39-55.
19.
Gottschalk, L. A. , Winget, C. N., & Gleser, G. G. (1969). Manual of instructions for using the Gottschalk-Gleser content analysis scales: Anxiety, hostility, and social alienation-personal disorganization. Berkeley: University of California Press.
20.
Griffith, R. C. , Miyagi, O., & Tago, A. (1958). The universality of typical dreams: Japanese vs. Americans. American Anthropologist, 60, 1173-1179.
21.
Hall, C. S. , & Van de Castle, R. L. (1966). The content analysis of dreams. New York: Twayne.
22.
Harlow, J. , & Roll, S. (1992). Frequency of day residue in dreams of young adults. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 74, 832-834.
23.
Hartmnann, E. (1989). Boundaries of dreams, boundaries of dreamers: Thin and thick boundaries as a new personality measure. Psychiatry Journal of University of Ottawa, 14, 557-560.
24.
Haskel, R. E. (1986). Cognitive psychology and dream research: Historical, conceptual, and epistemological considerations. Journal of Mind and Behavior, 7, 131-160.
25.
Hobson, J. A. (1990). Sleep and dreaming [Review]. Journal of Neuroscience, 10, 371-382.
26.
Josephs, R. A. , Markus, H. R., & Tafarodi, R. W. (1992). Gender and self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 391-402.
27.
Klerman, G. L. , & Weissman, M. M. (1980). Depression among women: The nature and causes. In M. Guttentag, S. Salasin, & D. Belle (Eds.), The mental health of wome. (pp. 484-513). New York: Academic Press.
28.
Kramer, M. , Hlasny, R., Jacobs, G., & Roth, T. (1976). Do dreams have meaning? An empirical inquiry. American Journal of Psychiatry, 133, 778-781.
29.
Lavie, P. , & Kaminer, H. (1991). Dreams that poison sleep: Dreaming in Holocaust. Dreaming, 1, 11-21.
30.
Levine, J. B. (1991). The role of culture in the representation of conflict in dreams. A comparison of Bedouin, Irish, and Israeli children. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 22, 472-490.
31.
Levine, R. (1966). Dreams and deeds: Achievement motivation in Nigeria. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
32.
Lykes, M. B. (1985). Whose meeting at which crossroads? A response to Brown and Gilligan. Special feature: Critical connections. The Harward project on women's psychology and girls' developmentFeminism and Psychology, 4, 345-349.
33.
Masalha, S. (1993). The effect of prewar conditions on the psychological reactions of Palestinian children to the Gulf War. In L. A. Leavitt & N. A. Fox (Eds.), The psychological effects of war and violence on children. (pp. 131-142). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
34.
McManus, J. , Laughlin, C. D., & Shearer, J. S. (1993). The function of dreaming in the cycles of cognition. A biogenetic structural account. In A. Moffit, M. Kramer, & R. Hoffman (Eds.), The function of dreamin. (pp. 21-50). Albany: SUNY Press.
35.
Nasef, Y (1992). The psychological impact of the Intifada on Palestinian children living in refugee camps in the West Bank, as reflected in their dreams, drawings and behaviour. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Peter Lang.
36.
Nielsen, T. , & Russel, A. P. (1992). The day-residue and dreamn-lag effects: A literature review and limited replication of two temporal effects in dream formation. Dreaming, 2, 67-77.
37.
Pedhazur, E. J. , & Pedhazur Schmelkin, L. (1991). Measurement, design, and analysis. An integrated approach. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
38.
Punamäki, R. L. (1997). The role of dreams in protecting children's well-being in traumatic conditions. International Journal of Behavioral Development.
39.
Rofe, Y , & Lewin, I. (1980). Daydreaming in a war environment. Journal of Mental Imagery, 4, 59-75.
40.
Rofe, Y , & Lewin, L. (1982). The effect of war environment on dreams and dream habits. In N. A. Milgram (Ed.), Stress and anxiety. (Vol. 8, pp. 67-79). Washington, DC: Hemisphere.
41.
Roll, S. , & Brenneis, C. B. (1975). Chicano and Anglo dreams of death: A replication. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 6, 377-383.
42.
Ross, R. J. , Ball, W. A., Sullivan, K. A., & Caroff, S. N. (1989). Sleep disturbance as the hallmark of posttraumatic stress disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 697-707.
43.
Schwartz, S. H. (1996). Cultural dimensions of values: Towards an understanding of national differences. In U. Kim, H. C. Triandis, & G. Yoon (Eds.), Individualism and collectivism: Theoretical and methodological issue. (pp. 78-90). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
44.
Stewart, D. W. , & Koulack, D. (1993). The function of dreams in adaption to stress over time. Dreaming, 3, 259-268.
45.
Sulkunen, P. , & Kekäläinen, O. (1992). WP-index, a programme of analysis of qualitative data. Helsinki, Finland: Gaudeamus. (In Finnish)
46.
Tedlock, B. (1992). The role of dreams and visionary narratives in Mayan cultural survival. Ethos, 20, 453-476.
47.
Van der Kolk, B. , Blitz, R., Burr, W., Sherry, S., & Hartmann, E. (1984). Nightmares and trauma: A comparison of nightmares after combat with lifelong nightmares in veterans. American Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 187-190.
48.
Von der Lippe, A. (1997). Cognitive development in low-income Cairo families. In E. El-Sarraj (Ed.), Palestinians in transition: Rehabilitation and community development. (pp. 34-45). Gaza, Palestine: Gaza Community Mental Health Programme Publications.
49.
Wright, J. , & Koulack, D. (1987). Dreams and contemporary stress. A disruption-avoidance-adaption model. Sleep, 10, 172.
