Psychology / Unit 4: States of Consciousness
4.4 Dreams
Notes
Theories about why we dream:
- Freud: dreams show hidden wishes. The manifest content is the story you remember; the latent content is the supposed hidden meaning. Little research supports this.
- Activation-synthesis theory: dreams come from the brain trying to make sense of random neural activity during REM.
- Information-processing (memory consolidation) theory: dreams help sort and store memories from the day.
- Cognitive theory: dreams reflect our thinking and concerns.
- Dreams can also occur in NREM sleep, but REM dreams tend to be more vivid. Everyone dreams, even if they do not remember.
Practice
Which theory says dreams are the brain's attempt to interpret random neural firing during REM sleep?
Activation-synthesis (Hobson and McCarley) proposes this.
In Freud's theory, the story a person remembers from a dream is called the:
Manifest means visible; latent means hidden.
Kira says that she never dreams. What is the best response from a psychologist?
Everyone dreams; recall is the difference.
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