Rl. Punamaki et M. Joustie, THE ROLE OF CULTURE, VIOLENCE, AND PERSONAL FACTORS AFFECTING DREAM CONTENT, Journal of cross-cultural psychology, 29(2), 1998, pp. 320-342
The impact of culture, violent environment, gender, and age on dream c
ontent was studied among 205 children in three groups: a Palestinian g
roup living in a violent environment (n = 80), and Palestinian (n = 45
) and Finnish (n = 80) groups living in peaceful areas. They were matc
hed for age (7-12) and gender. The method used was a 7-day dream diary
in which the participants recorded the dreams they recalled every mor
ning. Results showed that living in a violent environment affected dre
am content more than did culture and personal factors. The results con
firmed our hypothesis that a violent and dangerous environment was ass
ociated with mundane, intensive, and vivid dreams incorporating persec
ution and aggression themes. As an indication of individualistic versu
s collective dream characteristics, results showed that the dreams of
the Palestinian children from Gaza incorporated more ''external scenes
'' of anxiety whereas the Finnish children's dreams had more ''inner a
nxiety scenes.''