This study investigated if dream content differences exist between male and female dreamers in England. One most recent dream report was collected from each of the 100 male and 100 female research participants during dream seminars and a dream research project held in England between 1990 and 2004. The Hall-Van de Castle System of Content Analysis (1966) was used to score each dream report. Major findings showed that English males scored significantly higher on the Aggression/Friendliness index compared to English females. By contrast, English females reported a significantly higher Physical Aggression index compared to males. Females also reported a much higher Bodily Misfortunes percentage compared to males. Although some findings were similar to past studies using American participants, others were unique to this study and may be attributable to the particular sample used in this study (dream seminar attendees), or may suggest actual underlying cultural patterns of contemporary English men and women.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AdlerA. (1938). Social interest: Challenge to mankind. London: Faber and Faber.
2.
BlickK. A., & HoweJ. B. (1984). A comparison of the emotional content of dreams recalled by young and elderly women. Journal of Psychology, 116, 143–146.
3.
BonimeW. (1960). The clinical use of dreams. New York: Basic Books.
4.
BrenneisC. (1970). Male and female ego modalities in manifest dream content. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 76, 434–442.
5.
BrenneisC., & RollS. (1975). Ego modalities in the manifest dreams of male and female Chicanos. Psychiatry, 38, 172–185.
6.
BursikK. (1998). Moving beyond gender differences: Gender role comparisons of manifest dream content. Sex Roles, 38, 203–214.
7.
CalkinsM. H. (1893). Statistics of dreams. American Journal of Psychology, 5, 311–324.
8.
CartwrightR. (1986). Affect and dream work from an information processing point of view. Journal of Mind and Behavior, 7, 411–428.
9.
CavalleroC., & NataleV. (1988–1989). Was I dreaming or did it really happen? A comparison between real and artificial dream reports. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 8, 19–24.
10.
CohenD. B., & WolfeG. (1973). Dream recall and repression: Evidence for an alternative hypothesis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 41, 349–355.
11.
CohenJ. (1977). Statistical power for the behavioral sciences. New York: Academic Press.
12.
D'AndradeR. G. (1961). Anthropological studies of dreams. In HsuF. L. K. (Ed.), Psychological anthropology (pp. 296–332). Homewood, IL: Dorsey.
13.
DomhoffG. W. (1996). Finding meaning in dreams: A quantitative approach. New York: Plenum Press.
14.
DomhoffG. W. (1999). Drawing theoretical implications from descriptive empirical findings on dream content. Dreaming, 9, 201–210.
15.
DomhoffG. W. (2003). The scientific study of dreams: Neural networks, cognitive development, and content analysis. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
16.
DomhoffG. W. (2005). The content of dreams: Methodologic and theoretical implications. In KrygerM. H.RothT., & DementW. C. (Eds.), Principles and practices of sleep medicine (4th ed., pp. 522–534). Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders.
17.
DomhoffG. W., & SchneiderA. (1999). Much ado about very little: The small effect sizes when home and laboratory collected dreams are compared. Dreaming, 9, 139–151.
18.
DominoG. (1976). Primary process thinking in dream reports as related to creative achievement. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 44, 929–932.
19.
DudleyL., & FungaroliJ. (1987). The dreams of students in a women's college: Are they different?ASD Newsletter, 4(6), 6–7.
20.
DudleyL., & SwankM. (1990). A comparison of the dreams of college women in 1950 and 1990. ASD Newsletter, 7(5).
21.
FoulkesD. (1981). Children's dreams. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
22.
FreudS. (1965). New introductory lectures on psychoanalysis, StracheyJ. (Ed. & Trans.). New York: Avon. (Original work published 1933.)
23.
GarfieldP. (1988). Women's dreams, men's dreams: The difference. Women's bodies, women's dreams (Chap. 6). New York: Ballantine.
24.
GregorT. (1981). A content analysis of Mehinaku dreams. Ethos, 9, 352–390.
25.
HallC. S. (1953). The meaning of dreams. New York: Harper.
26.
HallC. S. (1984). “A ubiquitous sex difference in dreams” revisited. Journal of Personal and Social Psychology, 5, 188–194.
27.
HallC. S. (1991). The two provinces of dreams. Dreaming, 1, 91–93.
28.
HallC. S., & DomhoffB. (1963a). Aggression in dreams. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 9, 259–267.
29.
HallC. S., & DomhoffB. (1963b). A ubiquitous sex difference in dreams. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 96, 278–280.
30.
HallC.DomhoffG. W.BlickK., & WeesnerK. (1982). The dreams of college men and women in 1950 and 1980: A comparison of dream contents and sex differences. Sleep, 5, 188–194.
31.
HallC., & Van de CastleR. L. (1966). The content analysis of dreams. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
32.
HendricksM., & CartwrightR. (1978). Experiencing level in dreams: An individual difference variable. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 15, 292–298.
33.
HeynickF. (1993). Dream “mirror of the soul” reflects differences between cultures. Psychology International, pp. 1, 3.
34.
HobsonJ. A. (1988). The dreaming brain. New York: Basic Books.
35.
JungC. G. (1956). Two essays on analytical psychology. New York: Meridian.
36.
KaneC. M.MellenR. R.PattenP., & SamanoI. (1993). Differences in the manifest dream content of Mexican, Mexican American, and Anglo American college women: A research note. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 15(1), 134–139.
37.
KramerM.KinneyL., & ScharfM. (1983). Sex differences in dreams. Psychiatric Journal of the University of Ottawa, 8, 1–4.
38.
KrippnerS.BogzaranF., & de CarvalhoA. P. (2002). Extraordinary dreams and how to work with them. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
39.
KrippnerS.DevereuxP., & FishA. (2003). The use of the Strauch Scale to study dream reports from sacred sites in England and Wales. Dreaming, 13, 95–106.
40.
KrippnerS.LenzG.BarksdaleW., & DavidsonR. (1994). Content analysis of 30 dreams from 10 pre-operative male transsexuals. Journal of the American Society of Psychosomatic Dentistry and Medicine, monograph supplement 2.
41.
KrippnerS.PosnerN. A.PomeranceW.BarksdaleW., & FischerS. (1974). An investigation of dream content during pregnancy. Journal of the American Society of Psychosomatic Dentistry and Medicine, 21, 111–123.
42.
KrippnerS., & WeinholdJ. (2001). Gender differences in the content analysis of 240 dream reports from Brazilian participants in dream seminars. Dreaming, 11, 35–42.
43.
KrippnerS., & WeinholdJ. (2002). Gender differences in a content analysis study of 608 dream reports from research participants in the United States. Social Behavior and Personality, 30, 388–410.
44.
KrippnerS.WinklerM.RochlenA., & YasharB. (1998). Gender, national, and regional differences in a content analysis of 799 dream reports from research participants in Argentina, Brazil, and the United States. Interamerican Journal of Psychology, 32, 71–97.
45.
Lortie-LussierM.SchwabC., & De KonickJ. (1985). Working mothers versus homemakers: Do dreams reflect changing roles of men?Sex Roles, 12, 1009–1021.
46.
McCarleyR. W., & HobsonJ. A. (1979). The form of dreams and the biology of sleep. In WolmanB. B. (Ed.), Handbook of dreams: Research, theories and applications (pp. 76–130). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
47.
MunroeR. L., & MunroeR. H. (1977). Sex of dream characters in East Africa. Journal of Social Psychology, 103, 149–150.
48.
MunroeR. L.MunroeR. H.BrasherA.SeverinT.SchweickartD., & MooreR. (1985). Sex differences in East African dreams. Journal of Social Psychology, 125, 405–406.
49.
NielsenT.ZadraA.SimardV.SaucierS.StenstromP.SmithC., & KuikenD. (2003). The typical dreams of Canadian university students. Dreaming, 13, 211–235.
50.
O'NellC., & O'NellN. (1977). A cross-cultural comparison of aggression in dreams: Zapotecs and Americans. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 23, 35–41.
51.
PrasadB. (1982). Content analysis of dreams of Indian and American college students—A cultural comparison. Journal of Indian Psychology, 4, 54–64.
52.
RileyM. W., & StollC. S. (1968). Content analysis. In International encyclopedia of the social sciences (pp. 371–377). New York: Macmillan/Free Press.
53.
SchredlM.PetraC.BishopA.GolitzE., & BuschtonsD. (2003). Content analysis of German students' dreams: Comparison to American findings. Dreaming, 13, 237–243.
54.
SegallM. H.LonnerW. J., & BerryJ. W. (1998). Cross-cultural psychology as a scholarly discipline: On the flowering of culture in behavioral research. American Psychologist, 53, 1101–1110.
55.
ShwederR. A. (1991). Thinking through cultures: Expeditions in cultural psychology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
56.
ShwederR. A. (1993). “Why do men barbecue?” and other postmodern ironies of growing up in the decade of ethnicity. Daedalus, 122(1), 279–308.
StrauchI. (1969). Psychological aspects of dream recall. Paper presented at a symposium on sleep and dreaming, 19th International Congress of Psychology, London.
59.
StrauchI., & MeierB. (1996). In search of dreams: Results of experimental dream research. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
60.
TedlockB. (1987). Dreaming and dream research. In TedlockB. (Ed.), Dreaming: Anthropological and psychological interpretations (pp. 1–30). New York: Cambridge University Press.
61.
TonayV. (1990–91). California women and their dreams: A historical and sub-cultural comparison of dream content. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 10, 83–97.
62.
TonayV. (1993). Personality correlates of dream recall: Who remembers?Dreaming, 3, 1–8.
63.
UrbinaS. (1972). Cultural and sex differences in affiliative and achievement drives as expressed in reported dream content and a projective technique. Dissertation Abstracts International, 33, 432B.
64.
Van de CastleR. L. (1966). Animal figures in dreams: Age, sex, and cultural differences. (Abstract.) American Psychologist, 21, 623.
65.
Van de CastleR. L. (1971). The psychology of dreaming. Morristown, NJ: General Learning Corporation.
66.
Van de CastleR. L. (1994). Our dreaming mind. New York: Ballantine.
67.
WatermanD.De JongM., & MagdelijnsR. (1988). Gender, sex role orientation and dream content. In Sleep 86 (pp. 385–387). New York: Gustav Fischer Verlag.
68.
WinegarR., & LevinR. (1997). Sex differences in the object representations in the dreams of adolescents. Sex Roles, 36, 503–516.
69.
WingetC., & KramerM. (1979). Dimensions of dreams. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press.
70.
WingetC.KramerM., & WhitmanR. (1970). The relationship of socio-economic status and race to dream content. Psychophysiology, 7, 325–326.
71.
WingetC.KramerM., & WhitmanR. M. (1972). Dreams and demography. Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal, 17, 203–208.
