Evaluation - Effectiveness

• Evaluation - Effectiveness:

  • Research evidence
  • Methodological issues
  • Subjective interpretation
• Research evidence

  • Recent evidence has provided support for Freud's link between dreaming + primary-process thinking
  • Results show the rational part of the brain is inactive during REM sleep, whereas centres concerned with memory + motivation are active
  • Another source of support comes from earlier research by Hopefield on neural networks - computer simulations that aim to mimic the action of the brain
• Methodological issues

  • Conducted in sleep labratories - therefore, can be questioned whether the sleep/dream state is as authentic as when under normal conditions as patient is wired up with various electrodes
  • Many studies into dreaming are conducted on humans + animals that have been deprived of sleep
  • Significant disruption will impair important biological functions such as the secretion of hormones + neurotransmitters - confounding variables
• Subjective interpretation

  • Interpreting the manifest content + coming up with it's underlying meaning relies on the subject interpretation of the therapist
  • Furthermore, the dream that is being interpreted is subjective report of the dreamer + may not be reliable information
  • This means dream analysis is a highly subjective process going against the objective scientific aims of psychology