Fantasy Experience Research Articles

Different Strokes for Different Folks: Jung's Typology and Structured Experiences

The purpose of this study was to examine and compare the evaluations of 175 students differentiated by Carl Jung's psychotypology when they were involved in either a session of nonverbal communication experiences or a session of fantasy experiences. The significant findings were as follows: intuitive types preferred the two experiences more than the thinking types; extraverts preferred the two experiences more than the introverts; and the feeling types preferred the nonverbal communication experiences more than the fantasy experiences. Thus, it seems evident that some of the Jungian psychological types prefer different structured experiences.

Training Disadvantaged Preschoolers on Various Fantasy Activities: Effects on Cognitive Functioning and Impulse Control

Preschool children were trained in 1 of 3 different types of fantasy activities over a school year. The effects of this training were evaluated over a variety of tasks measuring cognitive development and impulse control. The same basic experiment was replicated over 3 different years. Results indicated that physical enactment of fantasy experiences (viz., acting fairy tales or enacting previous experiences) had a sizable effect on many of these variables; while simply listening and discussing was often no more effective than the control condition that merely cut, pasted, etc. Evidence suggested that fantasy play remoter from reality was more facilitative for development than more realistically oriented fantasy play.

Training Disadvantaged Preschoolers on Various Fantasy Activities: Effects on Cognitive Functioning and Impulse Control

Preschool children were trained in 1 of 3 different types of fantasy activities over a school year. The effects of this training were evaluated over a variety of tasks measuring cognitive development and impulse control. The same basic experiment was replicated over 3 different years. Results indicated that physical enactment of fantasy experiences (viz., acting fairy tales or enacting previous experiences) had a sizable effect on many of these variables; while simply listening and discussing was often no more effective than the control condition that merely cut, pasted, etc. Evidence suggested that fantasy play remoter from reality was more facilitative for development than more realistically oriented fantasy play.

The Role of Fantasy in the Response to Television

It is deemed critical to an understanding of the influence of the media, TV in particular, that we examine the functions of behaviors classed as fantasy activities. A major dimension of importance to such understanding is the extent to which fantasy is construed as a reality experience. Results of an experimental test with children in a controlled viewing situation support the hypothesis that a reality set may stimulate an aggressive behavior response, while a fantasy set reduces it over that of a no‐TV control group. Factor analysis of field study data reveals systematic differences in subjects' preferences for particular classes of aggressive programs, reinforcing the view that the issues in this area are multifaceted and multivariate. Five mechanisms by which a fantasy experience can produce a diminution in aggression are discussed, and it is suggested that analysis and study of these factors is a necessary next step.

A behavorial analysis of a group hypnosis treatment method.

Abstract This paper describes some common denominators between hypnosis and behavior therapy by means of a behavioral analysis of a group hypnosis treatment procedure. The treatment method involved interactional group psychotherapy under hypnosis, combined with cognitive and affective restructuring, and self hypnotic training utilizing visual imagery cues. The techniques capitalized on the vividness of the fantasy experience and the ease of changing emotional sets under hypnosis, to allow subjects to learn more adaptive affective responses and to rehearse more effective patterns of social behavior. The same treatment procedures are analyzed in a behavioral framework emphasizing the use of covert learning through imagery and the role of the therapist and the group as social reinforcers. It is proposed that a greater awareness of the use of learning principles by hypnotherapists would generate a more effective and systematic use of hypnosis.

The uses of hypnotically produced emotional responses in therapy.

This paper outlines a specialised use of hypnosis as a complement to counselling or interpretive psychotherapy in suitable cases. The techniques capitalise on the ease of manipulating emotions and on the vividness of fantasy experience in hypnosis, to allow patients to learn more adaptive patterns of affective response and to rehearse more adequate repertoires of social behaviour. Implications of the authors' work with a sample of 37 non-psychotic patients is discussed.

A Psychological Study of 10 Exceptionally Creative Adolescent Girls

Ten high school girls were identified as exceptionally creative on the basis of teacher nominations and test scores. Historical, personality, and projective data were collected by means of tests and interviews. Particular emphasis was placed on life history antecedents of creative achievement. The highly creative girls were found to possess a number of common characteristics, particularly in the areas of familial and educational history, leisure time activity, fantasy experience, and self concept.

The informational value of the supervisor's emotional experiences.

The emotions experienced by a supervisor—including even his private, ‘subjective’ fantasy experiences and his personal feelings about the supervisee—often provide valuable clarification of processes currently characterizing the relationship between the supervisee and the patient. In addition, these processes are often the very ones which have been causing difficulty in the therapeutic relationship and, because heretofore unrecognized by the supervisee, have not been consciously, verbally reported by him to the supervisor. This thesis is undoubtedly well known to many persons engaged in supervision, and in everyday use by them in this work; but my own experience indicates that it is far from universally recognized, and it has not been presented in the literature, to the best of my knowledge.It would be at least equally valid to express the principle in the following fashion: the processes at work currently in the relationship between patient and therapist are often reflected in the relationship between the...