Stretched dream science: The essential contribution of long-term naturalistic studies.

Abstract

Naturalistic observation has a lesser status than experiment in most sciences. In the field of dream study, practitioners of naturalistic and experimental disciplines coexist, with limited mutual respect. Long-term naturalistic observation, though, has unique sensitivities that make it the most effective or the only possible method for many important studies. While there are challenges to integrating naturalistic and experimental disciplines, there are possibilities, and there is a scientific imperative.

Revision of the good fortune scale: A new tool for the study of "big dreams."

“…. ..Dream psychology, in haste for its own Darwin, has bypassed the necessary foundations of a Linnaeus" (p. 97; see also Schmidt, 1999). The revised GF scale will hopefully provide another brick in that Linnaean foundation, contributing to the ongoing effort to observe and identify recurrent patterns in the diverse phenomenology of dreaming.…”

“…The revised GF scale will enhance the HVDC system's ability to identify typological frequencies, highlight their central features, and analyze them in relation to other content factors. What Harry Hunt said in his 1989 book The Multiplicity of Dreams remains true today: “Dream psychology…has largely avoided the fundamental observation and ordering of its materials in their natural context….Dream psychology, in haste for its own Darwin, has bypassed the necessary foundations of a Linnaeus” (p. 97; see also Schmidt, 1999). The revised GF scale will hopefully provide another brick in that Linnaean foundation, contributing to the ongoing effort to observe and identify recurrent patterns in the diverse phenomenology of dreaming.…”

“…The findings of content analysis have already made significant, though largely negative, contributions to dream theory. Domhoff, following Hall, has demonstrated that dream content is mostly continuous with waking life concerns and activities (Schmidt, 1999; Domhoff, 1996, 2003). On average, people tend to dream about the same people, places, and pursuits that are most prominent in their waking lives.…”