Psychology Dreams Term paper

While the free essays can give you inspiration for writing, they cannot be used 'as is' because they will not meet your assignment's requirements. If you are in a time crunch, then you need a custom written term paper on your subject (psychology dreams)
Here you can hire an independent writer/researcher to custom write you an authentic essay to your specifications that will pass any plagiarism test (e.g. Turnitin). Waste no more time!

Dreaming

Dreaming is a form of mental activity that occurs during sleep. The nature of dream activities has been characterized by many clinical and laboratory studies. These studies are more perceptual than conceptual: things are seen and heard rather than being subject to thought. Visual perception is present in almost all dreams, and auditory experience is 40 to 50%, but dreams are not necessarily visual imagery. Congenitally blind people dream in auditory and sensory-motor modes. One difference between waking and dreaming consciousness is that the latter tends to be an internal hallucinatory-like experience disconnected from the external world.. The senses of touch, taste, smell, and pain are not commonly experienced. Emotions are felt, but usually a single, powerful emotion is felt such as fear, anger, or joy, for example. Most dream content consists of memories, and are in the form of interrupted stories with frequent shifts of scene. One difference between waking and dreaming consciousness is that the latter tends to be an internal hallucinatory-like experience disconnected from the external world.

Many dreams collected in laboratories are rather common, but some people tend to experience some bizarre dreams. Early in the 20th century, Sigmund Freud believed that dream content was composed of the mental processes different from that used in the awake state. He believed this was what dominated the dreaming mind. He described this "process" as characterized by more primitive mechanisms, by rapid shifts in energy and emotion, and by a great deal of sexual and aggressive content derived from childhood. (Hartmann, E. 1997)

There are 4 stages of sleep. The individual goes from awake to stage 1, then to 2, 3, and finally 4, the deepest stage of sleep. After spending about 20 minutes in stage 4, they return to stage 1 and progress back to stage 4. The individual will continue to make these cycles throughout their sleep. Most individuals will experience about 4 to 5 cycles a night (Engle, 1984) (Snellgrove, 1984)

American sleep researchers Eugene Aserinsky and Nathaniel Kleitman proved through studies that dreams do not consist of fleeting imagery that occurs while a person awakens from sleep, as it was believed , but instead takes place during a biological state of its own. They stated that there are two clearly distinguishable state of sleep. The first state, called NREM-sleep (Non-Rapid Eye Movement) occurs in most of the slept period, and is associated with a usual low pulse blood pressure, little activation of the autonomic nervous system, and little to no reports of dreaming. The second type of sleep, called REM-sleep (Rapid Eye Movement sleep) during the sleep period in cycles and is characterized by the activation of the autonomic nervous system, rapid eye movement (usually side from to side), and dream "visits." It is also characterized by increased heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, muscle twitches, oxygen consumption, and gastric excretions. Usually, a fully grown person has about 4 to 5 cycles of REM sleep, consisting of about 25% of a night's sleep. A new born child's sleep can consist of as high as 50% REM type sleep. In adult humans, dreams begin about 90 minutes after the sleep process begin and recur about every 90 minutes, allowing about 2 hours of REM dreaming per night. With approximately 5 dreams a night, humans will have about 136 000 dreams in a lifetime, spending a bout 6 years in their REM dream state. Mentally retarded individuals or people with low I. Q.s tend to spend less time in the REM type sleep, but other mental disorders are capable of initiating more REM type sleep. Outer stimuli such as sounds or feelings can be incorporated into a dream if they occur during the REM state of sleep. These stimuli, however, have been shown to not be able to initiate a dream if one is not already in progress, and Freud had once suggested. REM type sleep is classified as paradox sleep because it is characterized by both light and deep sleep. In most dreams, individuals are paralyzed of using their voluntary muscles to prevent dreamers from physical damage. New knowledge of the biology of dreaming does not suggest that dreams have no meaning. Dreams are meaningful mental products because they express emotions of the dreamer. These emotions reveal different aspects of a person's mental functioning. It has been shown that animals dream. Studies have proven through testing that monkeys have dream periods throughout their sleep. Humans, and all mammals, except for the spiny anteater, and perhaps the duckbill platypuses dream every night. (Hartmann, E. 1997) (Haskell, R. 1996)

Dreaming has always been a subject of controversy. Documents dating back to 2000 BC discuss dreams and their interpretations. In ancient Greece dreams were believed to be messages from the gods. In later centuries, Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen believed that dreams often contained physiological information that may be cause of future illnesses. Artemeidorus (AD c. 150) documented and interpreted thousands of dream reports in his book Oreiocritica (meaning "critical dreams" in Greek). His ideas were later abandoned, and no further progress was made in the study of dreams until the late 1800s.

In 1900, Sigmund Freud led the way in modern dream research in his book called "The Interpretations of Dreams". The book explained that dreams are distinguished thoughts from the unconscious mind. He created a theory of how the mind functioned while the body was asleep. According to Sigmund Freud (1964), dreams represented the royal road to understanding the unconscious and, consequently, their significance within the field of psychotherapy is enormous. Carl Jung, a student of Freud, created his own theory based upon his belief that the surface content of dreams is the meaning and that deep symbolic interpretations has little importance, as what Freud had believed.

The discovery of REM type sleep was a great advancement in the study of dreams because it gave scientists a basis of indication of dreaming individuals and animals. The discovery was made...

You should cite this paper as follows:

MLA Style
. EssayMania.com. Retrieved on 23 May, 2012 from
    <http://essaymania.com/134177/psychology-dreams>

More College Papers

Steroids essay
Steroids Should steroids be legal? Well let's start of with what are steroids? Steroids are classified in the encyclopedia as "any of class of lipids having a molecular structure based on four joined carbon rings with hydrogen molecules attached."(encylopedia.com) "Anabolic steroids - or more p

Steriods 2 essay
Are steroids a drug? Yes, they are considered drugs and some types are illegal. These types of steroids are very controversial because they help body builders to bulk up fast and they make the body builder gain weight and loose fat in a short period of time. But on the other hand steroids also destr

Steriods essay
Steroids What are Steroids There are three major divisions of steroids: corticosteroids, estrogens and progestogens, androgens. Corticosteroids are found in both prescription and non-prescription cremes that are used to control rashes and itches. These two common trade names are Cortaid and Lana