have you ever dreamed about the following? climbing a ladder climbing a staircase crossing a bridge...

Have you ever dreamed about the following?

• Climbing a ladder

• Climbing a staircase

• Crossing a bridge

• Driving an automobile

• Riding an elevator

• Entering a room

• Riding a horse

• Riding a roller coaster

• Walking into a tunnel

You’re a victim of a sexual intercourse dream!

©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007 Huffman: Psychology in Action

(8e)

Understanding Consciousness

• Alternate States of Consciousness (ASCs): mental states, other than ordinary waking consciousness, found during sleep, dreaming, psychoactive drug use, hypnosis, etc.

©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007 Huffman: Psychology in Action

(8e)

Sleep and Dreams: Circadian Rhythms

• Circadian Rhythms: biological changes occurring on a 24-hour cycle

– Our energy level, mood, learning, and alertness all vary throughout the day.

– Sections of the hypothalamus called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and the pineal gland regulate these changes.

©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007 Huffman: Psychology in Action

(8e)

Sleep and reams: Circadian Rhythms (Continued)

• Disrupted circadian rhythms from shift work, jet lag, and sleep deprivation may cause alterations in mood, concentration, motivation, attention, and motor skills.

©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007 Huffman: Psychology in Action

(8e)

Hours of Sleep for Different Mammals

Sleep and Dreams About what do people Dream?

• Three most common themes are:– falling, being chased or attacked, repeatedly trying but

failing to perform a task

• 64% of dreams are associated with sadness, fear, or anger and aggressive acts outnumbered friendly acts by 2:1

• 18% of dreams were happy or exciting• Lucid dreaming

– A semiconscious dream state when sleepers are aware that they are dreaming.

Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing

Theories of Dreaming

Freud’s Wish-Fulfillment TheoryDreams are an attempt to satisfy sexual and

aggressive impulses that we cannot satisfy when we are awake.

Manifest Content: the surface level of a dream (images, action).

Latent Content: the unconscious meaning of a dream.

A Freudian dream...

A Freudian dream...

A Freudian dream...

A Freudian dream...

A Freudian dream...

A Freudian dream...

A Freudian dream...

A Freudian dream...

Theories of Dreaming

Activation-Synthesis TheoryDreams result from random activation of

brain cells responsible for eye movement, muscle movement, balance, and vision.

The brain then synthesizes (combines) this activity with existing knowledge and memories as if the signals came from the environment.

How we interpret the random images and sensations is the dream’s meaning.

Theories of Dreaming

Dreams as Problem-SolvingDreams reflect emotional preoccupations of

waking life—relationships, sex, work, health.

Images in a dream are sometimes symbols for things in everyday life.

This theory agrees with Freud that dreams contain symbols, but there is no “latent” (unconscious) meaning. The meaning is at the surface level—”manifest” content.

Theories of Dreaming

Mental Housekeeping TheoryDuring sleep, the brain shuts out sensory

input so it can process what was stored in memory during the day.Dreams are brief glimpses of the brain’s sorting, scanning and searching through memories. Dreams have no meaning.

Supporting the theory is research showing that REM sleep is important for remembering things that were learned during the preceding day.

COLOR AND LANGUAGEIN DREAMS

Does Color in Dreams Mean Anything?

• It is very controversial.

• Some dream in only black and white.

• Is it cultural?• Is it media based?

Language in Dreams

• How long does it take to dream in a new language?

• Does language exposure change your dreams?

• What language do deaf people dream in?

• Does location of the dream affect the language?