Theories of Dreaming In the fifth chapter of our textbook Psychology: Themes and Variations, Weiten discusses various topics of consciousness; one of which includes the world of dreams. He begins with the contents of dreams and goes into different areas of what the unconscious mind dreams. There are common themes that were reported in a study from college students. Weiten brings up that our dreams are influenced by what is happening in our day to day lives, or by different stimuli that would be affecting us while we sleep. By this he brought up the example of a research based experiment where water was spilled onto people who were sleeping and those who didn’t wake up were more likely to report of having water be incorporated in their dreams.
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He brings up Sigmund Freud’s wish fulfillment theory, Rosalind Cartwright’s problem-solving view and J.Allan Hobson’s activation-synthesis hypothesis. Weiten says that Freud’s theory states that our dreams are what the unconscious wishes for. Freud then developed this idea of dream interpretation. “Even though research has not provided much support for Freud’s conception of dreaming, he remains popular among many people.” (p.157) Cartwright’s problem-soling view embraces the idea that “dreams allow people to engage in creative thinking about problems because dreams are not restrained by logic or realism.” (p.157). This allows people to work through problems that they may be having in their day to day lives. Finally Hobson’s activation-synthesis hypothesis has to do with dreams being nothing more than neurological impulse that are occurring while a person is in REM sleep. (Weiten …show more content…
In this article Hobson begins with what constitutes a dream and the state the brain is in when a person is experiencing a dream. Hobson uses physiological evidence to explain the neural activity that we call dreaming. To best explain what is going on Hobson uses two diagrams to show what is going on when the brain is dreaming. In the diagram it shows which parts of the brain are being activated and stimulated through neural impulses. (Hobson
He brings up Sigmund Freud’s wish fulfillment theory, Rosalind Cartwright’s problem-solving view and J.Allan Hobson’s activation-synthesis hypothesis. Weiten says that Freud’s theory states that our dreams are what the unconscious wishes for. Freud then developed this idea of dream interpretation. “Even though research has not provided much support for Freud’s conception of dreaming, he remains popular among many people.” (p.157) Cartwright’s problem-soling view embraces the idea that “dreams allow people to engage in creative thinking about problems because dreams are not restrained by logic or realism.” (p.157). This allows people to work through problems that they may be having in their day to day lives. Finally Hobson’s activation-synthesis hypothesis has to do with dreams being nothing more than neurological impulse that are occurring while a person is in REM sleep. (Weiten …show more content…
In this article Hobson begins with what constitutes a dream and the state the brain is in when a person is experiencing a dream. Hobson uses physiological evidence to explain the neural activity that we call dreaming. To best explain what is going on Hobson uses two diagrams to show what is going on when the brain is dreaming. In the diagram it shows which parts of the brain are being activated and stimulated through neural impulses. (Hobson