ABSTRACT

Dreams and adjustment following marital separation

Sandy Eugarde 
Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane, Australia

Sandy Eugarde, School of Psychology & Counselling,
Queensland University of Technology, Beams Rd.,
Carseldine, Queensland, Australia. 4034
Email: s.eugarde@qut.edu.au

Authors:  Sandy Eugarde, Kathryn Gow (PhD), & Julie Hansen (PhD)
All of QUT, Brisbane, Australia

Sandy Eugarde is a psychologist who is currently undertaking her PhD research in the area of dreams and adjustment. She is specifically investigating dream themes and dream affect in relation to adjustment and coping following marital separation. Sandy works clinically in the field of addictions.

Summary of Presentation

The results of both qualitative and quantitative research with a group of individuals who had recently experienced a marital separation or divorce will be discussed. The focus is on dream themes and affect, as well as the relationship of these dream variables to adjustment and coping.

Learning Objectives.

• Summarize previous research into the possible role of dreams in relation to adjustment after traumatic and stressful life events.

• Placement of the current research and it’s findings in relation to previous research and emotional adjustment theories of dream function.

• Understanding of possible interpretations of the results of this research.

Evaluation questions:

• What does past research tell us about the relationship between dream recall and dreaming of stressors, and emotional adjustment?

• What did the results of this particular study reveal in terms of dreaming, coping, and emotional adjustment?

• What were the results of the qualitative investigations into dream diary data able to add to what had been found in the quantitative study?

   

Abstract

The current research assessed some aspects of the dream content and dream affect of individuals following marital separation. It aimed to ascertain whether or not dream content may reflect a process of emotional adjustment, and whether dream content can be used to predict levels of adjustment. The question of whether separated individuals who dream of their ex-spouse and separation more frequently would show more or less improved levels of adjustment was tested. Adjustment was taken to be a multidimensional concept, and was measured across a range of variables, including self-rated adjustment, depression, anxiety, stress, satisfaction with life, and impact of the event. Participants were sixty-three recently separated (45) & divorced (18) men and women and 76 married controls, who completed questionnaires three months apart. Forty-one of them also kept dream diaries for a period of four weeks. After three months, separated people were significantly more adjusted, less stressed, more satisfied with life, and less affected by the impact of the event, than they were when first measured. Linear regressions revealed that lower rates of dreaming about ex-spouses significantly predicted higher rates of self-rated adjustment after three months. Less reporting of vivid dreams since separation significantly predicted improvement, after three months, in depression, and in stress scores. Decreased rates of dreaming since separation predicted improved satisfaction with life after three months. The current study demonstrated a significant relationship between certain types of dream content and adjustment over time, with different aspects of dreaming predicting different components of adjustment. The results were consistent with those of Kaminer and Lavie (1991, 1993) and Lavie and Kaminer (1996) in that low dream recall and fewer and less vivid dreams about the focus of emotional distress predicted better adjustment and functioning. They explored the dreaming patterns of Holocaust survivors and explained their findings in terms of repression, which this study found to be correlated with boundary thickness (Hartmann, 1998). It is suggested that people with thicker boundaries are more able to repress distressing material, both when awake and asleep, and thus recover more quickly from an emotionally difficult event or situation. Qualitative analysis of participants’ dream diaries revealed more detailed information about the complex relationship between dream themes, dream affect, and emotional adjustment.

References

Hartmann, E. (1998). Dreams and nightmares: The new theory on the origin and meaning of dreams. New York: Plenum Trade.

Kaminer, H., & Lavie, P. (1991). Sleep and dreaming in Holocaust survivors. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 179 (11), 664-669.

Kaminer, H., & Lavie, P. (1993). Sleep and dreams in well-adjusted and less adjusted Holocaust surviviors. In M. S. Stroebe, W. Stroebe, & R. O. Hansson (Eds.), Handbook of bereavement: Theory, research, and intervention (pp. 331-345). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

Lavie, P., & Kaminer, H. (1996). Sleep, dreaming, and coping style in Holocaust survivors. In D. Barrett (Ed.), Trauma and dreams (pp. 114-124). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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