The study aimed to investigate if waking personality reflects dreaming experiences in an individual. The study hypothesized that people who have negatively oriented characters are likely to have adverse effects in their waking life. There were 232 participants obtained from the general population without any incentive paid. They were between 18 to 54 based on emotionality, honesty-humility as well as agreeableness. The researcher selected the participants from different sociocultural, ethnic communities as well as geopolitical backgrounds ( Ghosh, 2015).
Data was collected using HEXACO personality inventory revised and dream reports. HEXACO is model that consists of honesty, humility, emotional, extraversion, conscientiousness, openness and agreeableness. It was preferred because it has high predictive validity. Besides, the other factors such as agreeableness, honest humility as well as emotionality are unique from the other group of traits on the five-factor model ( Ghosh, 2015).
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Moreover, they would be used to measure altruistic and antagonistic characteristics among the participants. There were various categories according to the age bracket. For instance, there were 124 young adults aged between 18-35 years, then 108 people between 36-54 years referred to as middle-aged adults and finally the older adults who were 55 years and above
The procedure was good whereby after recruitment of the participants they were introduced to the aim of the study which was well stated and explained to them. Also, the participants were assured to receive their personality report at the end of the research. Every participant was introduced and given the instructions on how to go about filling the forms. All the questions related to the study were answered to make sure that there was no misunderstanding. Data was kept anonymous so that the participant does not fear giving embarrassing information. They were also asked to participate voluntarily, and the researcher had to confirm if they understood and if they were still willing to participate in the study before commencement to filling forms. Only those who agreed to participate and they were given the HEXACO personality inventory to complete. Upon completion, they were given dream report sheets, which consisted of blank papers that the participants wrote their most recent as well as prominent dream. They were asked to write as much information as they knew in twenty minutes. They were also asked to write their experiences as dreamers, how they felt during and after the dream and state if the dream was pleasant, neutral or unpleasant. They were asked to indicate the date and day so that they do not report dreams that happened a long time ago. The confidentiality of their reports was assured from the researcher and to make sure the impartiality of the data processing, they used code numbers. The fake dreams were rejected, and only 232 reports were retained ( Ghosh, 2015).
Positive and negative words were used in describing dreams which emerged into different themes based on the emotional tones of the dreams. To ensure the validity of the study the researcher asked the research assistants to read every report and categorize it as either positive, negative or ambiguous. Besides, the participants were interviewed verbally, and only a few reported neutrals.
Results from this study indicated that there was the difference between the scores between males and females. For instance, female scored more points than men especially in the emotionality, honesty as well as Altruism. However, males scored higher in agreeableness than women. The results implied that there is a significant difference in sex on personal character. Therefore, the two sexes were treated differently. The results confirmed the personality factors are affected by the nature of the dream. Moreover, data showed that there is a different personality factor in sex based on the dreams. For example, the female had a higher score on emotionality Altruism and honesty as opposed to males ( Ghosh, 2015).
On the other hand, males had the higher score on the personality of agreeableness. Moreover, it was noted that 52 % of the females had negative dreams while only 40% had negative dreams. It implied that women report more negative as opposed to males. A negative correlation between the effects of dreaming and emotionality dimension was identified. This correlation confirmed that the high scores of emotionality were from the individuals who experienced anxiety and fear, those who needed emotional support, stress, and bonding experience more negative dreams. Similarly, there was a positive correlation between agreeableness and dream effects among males than women. This implied that men forgive easily than women and that individuals who forgive fast are tolerant of judgment, cooperating, compromising and can easily control their temper.
Moreover, there was a positive relationship between honesty-humility and dreaming effects among male than women who correlated with medium size. Therefore, the high scores were for the individuals who do not like to be manipulated and usually feel lesser impulses in breaking the rules, they do not like luxuries and do not care so much about social status. As a result, they are generally healthy and experience positive dreams, unlike the female. However, there was no relationship between Altruism and effects of dreams among males and women ( Ghosh, 2015).
The researcher concluded that there is a relationship between personality and the effects of the dream experiences. The results have demonstrated that people’s personalities affect the type of information they consolidate which alters the nature of the dream they experience. An individual with negative personality factors while dreaming may have negative information while waking and they tend to select and store negative memories. This storage of negative memories affects the individual’s behavioral as well as cognitive processes hence negative life experiences during waking life. Negative experiences cause distress and anxiety. Besides, personality traits changes with age in that people become socially dominant emotionally stable and conscientious when they age. Therefore, it can be concluded that as people age their dreams tend to be positive because of the positive orientation ( Ghosh, 2015).
Critique
The general study was well designed to test the hypothesis that The study hypothesized that people who have negatively oriented personalities are likely to have adverse effects in their waking life. HEXACO model which consisted of honesty, humility, emotional, extraversion, conscientiousness, openness and agreeableness was relevant for this type of study. The method was preferred because it had a high predictive validity. Besides, agreeableness, honest humility, as well as emotionality, are unique from the other group of traits on the five-factor model therefore there good have given the best results to test the hypothesis. Moreover, those factors were used to measure altruistic and antagonistic traits among the participants.
According to the results, it was concluded that an individual with negative personality factors while dreaming might have negative information while waking and they tend to select and store negative memories. This storage of negative memories affects the individual’s behavioral as well as cognitive processes hence negative life experiences during waking life. Negative experiences cause distress and anxiety. Besides, personality traits changes with age in that people become socially dominant emotionally stable and conscientious when they age.
In the methodological part, the sample size was too small for generalization, a more significant number of people would have been used. Moreover, the participants were only female and men the transgender group could also have been included. Apart from stating that the personality factors affect the dream experiences, it could have also been tested whether the results may have been influenced by the personality whereby the personality of the dream determined the choice of reporting. The other factors which could have influenced the memory of the participant could be either pleasant or unpleasant experiences from the dream. Finally, the time should not have been limited to the most recent dreams because some dreams have happened a long time and they still affect the participant
Summary
The study aimed to test the hypothesis which stated that people who have negatively oriented personalities are likely to have adverse effects in their waking life. 232 participants were selected from the general population without any incentive paid. HEXACO model which consisted of honesty, humility, emotional, extraversion, conscientiousness, openness and agreeableness was used. The results confirmed that people’s personalities affect the type of information they consolidate which affects the nature of the dream they experience. An individual with negative personality factors while dreaming may have negative information while waking and they tend to select and store negative memories.
Reference
Ghosh, C. C. (2015). Relation Between Waking Personality Factors and the Affective Nature of Dreaming Experience. Undergraduate Journal of Psychology , 28 (1), 35-45.
