Thesis
Making connections: memory, emotion, and social bonds in the dreams of U.S. college students
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2011
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/102489
Abstract
Many psychological anthropologists maintain that dreams are sources for cultural analysis. In this paper, I use the Connectionist Model of cognition in conjunction with Dream Theory to consider the interaction between memory, emotion, and current life experiences in the dreams of U.S. college students. First, I identify thematic patterns in the manifest content of the dreams collected using a single word coding method. One emergent theme involves the dreamers’ relationships with family and friends. Second, I investigate this thematic element further using metaphor analysis. Following a relationship plot through the dream, I believe one can elucidate the dreamer’s waking experience of that relationship. Lastly, in exploring these metaphors further and triangulating the data with dreamers’ own analyses of their dreams, I offer a cultural analysis: college students in the U.S. struggle with the transition in their social bonds that occurs during this time.
Metrics
5 File views/ downloads
13 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Making connections
- Creators
- Amy Marie Speargas
- Contributors
- Robert J. Quinlan (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; Pullman, Wash. :
- Identifiers
- 99900525091401842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis