Abstract
The satisfaction of individuals’ psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, as conceived from a self-determination theory perspective, is said to be conducive to personal growth and well-being. What has been unexamined is whether psychological need-based experiences, either their satisfaction or frustration, manifests in people’s self-reported dream themes as well as their emotional interpretation of their dreams. A cross-sectional study (N = 200; M age = 21.09) focusing on individuals’ recurrent dreams and a three-day diary study (N = 110; M age = 25.09) focusing on daily dreams indicated that individuals experiencing psychological need frustration, either more enduringly or on a day-to-day basis, reported more negative dream themes and interpreted their dreams more negatively. The contribution of psychological need satisfaction was more modest, although it related to more positive interpretation of dreams. The discussion focuses on the role of dreams in the processing and integration of psychological need-frustrating experiences.
Highlights
Dreams may help to process and integrate people’s daily experiences (e.g., De Monchaux 1993; Wamsley and Stickgold 2011), and it is thought that meaningful experiences, those that are threatening (Revonsuo 2000), are at the forefront of dream material (Erikson 1954; Jung 1948/1974)
We examined the links between the frustration and satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, and both dream themes and emotions
In Study 1, using a cross-sectional design, we aimed to examine the link between general psychological need satisfaction and frustration and important recurring dreams, as a way of testing how these enduring experiences are reflected in dreams
Summary
Dreams may help to process and integrate people’s daily experiences (e.g., De Monchaux 1993; Wamsley and Stickgold 2011), and it is thought that meaningful experiences, those that are threatening (Revonsuo 2000), are at the forefront of dream material (Erikson 1954; Jung 1948/1974). Research based in self-determination theory (SDT; Ryan and Deci 2000, 2017) has focused on day-today and enduring experiences of three basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, which are thought to be especially important for well-being and psychological growth (Deci and Ryan 2000, 2012; Sheldon et al 1996). These psychological need experiences have been further defined in terms of being actively satisfied or frustrated (Bartholomew et al 2011; Vansteenkiste and Ryan 2013). We thought psychological need satisfaction in waking life may be linked to more positive emotions in dreams given
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