Is Freud's Wish-Fulfilment Theory the most persuasive explanation of why we dream?
Continuity Hypothesis: Cognitive approach
Freud's Wish-Fulfilment Theory: Psychoanalytical approach
Activation-Synthesis Hypothesis: Neurophysiological approach
Threat Simulation Theory: Evolutionary approach
Outline
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Evidence
Freud 1899 and Foulkes 1982
children's dreams
Wegner 2004
correlation between suppression and dream content
nightmares
‘The Interpretation of Dreams’ - 1899
understanding one’s dreams is “the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind.”
Evidence
Zadra and Pesant
correlation between well-being and dream content
Domhoff
case study: Barb Sanders
Hall and Bell
case study: child molester
discontinuities
Hall and Lind 1970
dream content embodies the conceptions and concerns of waking life
Evidence
Zadra et al
recurrent dreams
Solms and Malcom-Smith
recent dreams
Revonsuo
“the repeated nocturnal rehearsal of the neurocognitive mechanisms that are essential for threat recognition and avoidance behaviours while awake”
Evidence
Dement and Kleitman
Solms
recall when woken from REM sleep
brain injury, REM and dreaming can occur without the other
Hobson & McCarley, 1977
brain attempting to synthesize the neuronal processes activated from the brainstem during Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep with the cerebral cortex (forebrain).
Criteria for persuasiveness
validity or research supporting or opposing (scientific methods)
generalisability of theory
compared to other theories (focus on approaches)