The role of demand characteristics and hypnotic ability in dream change following a presleep instruction.

Abstract

The role of demand characteristics in dream change was investigated by comparing dream report change following pre-and postsleep administrations of instructions to pay attention to specific dream content. This design was based on the assumption that if presleep instructions merely distort dream reports rather than influence actual dreams, report change should be observable following a postsleep instruction. In addition, subjects were prescreened for hypnotic ability, which allowed experimenters to examine the role of hypnotizability in dream change. Significant differences were observed following the presleep, but not the postsleep, instructions. It was therefore concluded that report distortion as a result of paying attention to a dimension of dream content was insufficient to account for dream report changes following presleep instructions. Furthermore, hypnotic ability correlated significantly with amount of dream change.

Revisiting a century-old Freudian slip--From suggestion disavowed to the truth repressed.

“…However, the problem is not so readily finessed because, as we have already seen in the Belicki and Bowers (1982) study, converging indicators themselves can be suggested. As an amateur archeologist, Freud had considerable confidence in the psyche's residue as a kind of stable record of the past, from which one could reconstruct the nature of the the patient's history and problems.…”

When Dreams Become Reality

“…In another study, subjects were urged to pay attention to either times when they were with many people or times when they were alone. Specifically, people who were instructed to pay attention to times when they were alone were less likely to dream about lots of other people (Belicki & Bowers, 1982).…”

Multiple predictors of hypnotic susceptibility.

“…In an experimental investigation, Belicki and Bowers (1982) found that subjects who received presleep instructions to attend to dreams in which they were “either by themselves or with few people” reported fewer people in their dreams than did subjects who received the instructions postsleep. Furthermore, a dream change index score (treatment-baseline) correlated significantly with HGSHS:A ( r = .36).…”