When you wish upon a dream
The research of consciousness, or states of awareness, has provided numerous interesting and influential studies. Sleep, dreams, and hypnosis are states of awareness that have intrigued psychologists because they relate to the quality of psychological interaction with the environment. States of awareness change constantly, which produces changes in behavior. Studies in this area have made great contributions to the understanding of psychology. Researchers pursuing answers about states of awareness discovered Rapid Eye Movement sleep and how it relates to dreaming. Rosalind Cartwright, a leading researcher in this area, takes the study of consciousness to another level by suggesting that people may be able to control what they dream about. Many psychologists have theorized about why people dream. "Sigmund Freud believed that dreams were windows to your unconscious; that your greatest unfulfilled wishes and fears would be expressed symbolically in your dreams." Freud's view has been highly influential, and psychotherapists still use dream interpretation during therapy. Chrick and Mitchilson's "mental housekeeping hypothesis says that you need to dream to clean y
Researchers continue to build on Cartwright's findings. She believed people are most concerned with personality aspects they would like to change, or "cognitive inconsistency about the self". She chose two other words along with the target adjective in order to eliminate other motivations for dreaming about a certain topic. The subjects then sorted another deck for the person they would most like to be. Dreaming can provide great insight into the mind and soul of the self. For example, learning to control dreams could result in valuable psychotherapy as a way to experiment with personal changes. Prior to falling asleep, the subjects were told to say over and over; "I wish I were not so (target adjective)" The subjects were awoke during REM sleep so they could report their dreams. Each subject had to sort a deck of cards with an adjective such as selfish on each one. Some of the subjects dreamed their ideal trait in another character, but the trait caused problems for the character. "If only the target word is incorporated on a significant number of cases, it might be argued that this is one model for how dreams are formed: A tension area is brought to awareness prior to sleep", she wrote. The only way she could prove this was by including the control words in each subject's analysis. " Rosalind Cartwright developed the theory that dreams provide and extension of thought in order for people to solve problems they face in life. Mankind can benefit from a better understanding of consciousness in many ways. This supported the prediction that the way you approach a situation in your dreams is different from when you are awake. The cards were placed into seven categories ranging from "least to most like me".
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