Constructive Functions of Dreams: From a Theoretical Model to an Empirical Validation. Part 1

The article presents a description of the theoretical model of dreams and constructive dreaming, developed by a team of authors (Osin E.N., Kedrova N.B., Egorova P.A.). The dreaming is considered by the authors as a phenomenon of culture. The article provides a brief comparative analysis of the content of the concepts of “dream” and “dreaming” in English-speaking and Russian-speaking cultures, and also shows the differences in psychological approaches to understanding dreams and dreaming, depending on the cultural context. The paper provides definitions of dreams and constructive dreaming, discusses in detail the genesis of a dream, its content and types, as well as the positive functions of daydreams and constructive dreaming in the regulation of mental activity: development of intrinsic motivation, orientation in the decision-making process, development of a future time perspective, development of values-based motivation, support of psychological well-being. Based on the theoretical model we formulate the hypotheses for an empirical study of the positive functions of dreams and constructive dreaming. The results are presented in the second part of the work.

Introduction

Daydreams and daydreaming are among the events of inner life that are the most vivid and, at the same time, the most intimate and hidden from the observer [39; 43; 46]. A rather negative attitude to daydreaming has developed both in psychological science and in pedagogical practice [39; 43; 44; 46]. Teachers saw it as a cause of inattention and learning failures; psychologists often regarded daydreams as an infantile way to release tension and escape from the complex reality into fruitless but comforting fantasies [46].

Daydream-derived thoughts and images often accompany external activity and occupy, according to various data, up to half of the time spent awake [39; 43; 44]. However, until recently, relatively few experimental studies have been dedicated to daydreams and daydreaming [10; 44; 48]. The systematic studies of daydreams and daydreaming processes, conducted in the 1950s by a group of scientists led by J. L. Singer, convincingly demonstrated the positive properties of daydreams that were also confirmed in later works [39; 46; 43]. Yet most modern studies still consider daydreaming as a source of erroneous actions in experimental situation as well as everyday life, mood worsening, and deterioration of a person’s emotional state [43; 44; 49]. Meanwhile, the high prevalence of daydreaming and its often-high subjective significance raises a legitimate question for researchers about the adaptive functions of daydreams and daydreaming and their role in the regulation of mental activity. Over the last 20 years, more and more works have appeared demonstrating the positive role of daydreams and daydreaming in self-regulation processes; however, their functions have not been studied sufficiently [44].

Many authors have questioned the positive role of daydreaming due to not accounting for the complexity and heterogeneity of the phenomenon [43; 10]. The identification of constructive daydreaming as a special type of daydreaming, one that is directed into the future, allowed us to indicate a number of its positive functions such as future forecasting, long-term planning, emotional regulation, experience processing, and development of creativity and self-reflection [39; 46; 43; 32; 44]. People who have a tendency towards constructive daydreaming demonstrated an openness to new experience and a willingness to notice the positive aspects of life [53; 51; 34]. Constructive daydreaming was shown to be linked to striving for personal growth, having a purpose in life, and positive emotions; it also predicted one’s authenticity being experienced more fully, as well as one feeling self-alienated to a lesser degree [32; 52]. Constructive daydreaming has shown to play an important role in vocational self-determination [31]. Research findings also attest to a positive influence of constructive daydreaming on the level of psychological well-being of the individual [32; 43]. At the same time, there are very few studies of constructive daydreaming, creative daydreaming about the future, and their influence on human consciousness and activity [44;10].

Another complication of studying daydreams and daydreaming arises from the fact that a daydream is a cultural phenomenon. The ideas about the essence of daydreams and daydreaming are inseparable from the specific culture and linguistic environment in which they emerged and developed.

The present article is a continuation of a series of empirical studies on the positive role of daydreams and daydreaming in the regulation of mental activity [12; 13]. In the first part of the article, we present the author’s theoretical model of the study, which is based on the traditions and ideas of the cultural-activity approach and relies on the results of research conducted by J. L. Singer, J. S. Antrobus, E. Klinger, their students and followers (the situational approach to the study of daydreams and daydreaming; for more details see [10]). The first part of the paper also provides a brief comparative analysis of the perceptions of daydreams and daydreaming in different cultures, mainly Western European, American (English-speaking) and Russian. The second part of the paper is dedicated to the results of an empirical study of the positive functions of daydreams and constructive daydreaming conducted by the authors on a Russian sample.

Daydream as a cultural phenomenon

A brief comparison of the concept “daydream” in different languages allows us to see significant differences in the way people of different cultures understand daydreams. For example, the word “dream” in English language and the word “traum” in German mean both a daydream and a sleeping dream at the same time, and their multiple meanings form 2 groups: 1) the thoughts and feelings one has in a dream and 2) a strong desire. Daydream and dream are also homonymous in Spanish (“sueño”) and Italian (“sogno”), both derived from the Latin “somnium” (daydream, dream). French, Arabic and many other languages also use the same word for a daydream and a dream [16].

It is not surprising that in the English-speaking psychological literature researchers pay attention mostly to the common properties of daydreaming (or a “day dream”) and dreams that occur when a person is asleep: namely being fleeting, changeable, often lacking coherence and logic, fantastic and involuntary [39]. Dreaming during the day, as well as dreams at night, are part of the general stream of consciousness representing internal stimulation, which is perceived and experienced in parallel with external events when awake [46].

Meanwhile in Slavic languages a daydream and a dream are not homonyms. The etymology of the word мечта (“a daydream”) goes back to the verbs “to flash, squint, shimmer, sparkle”. G.A. Ilyinsky stated that “the ‘center of meaning’ of the word mьčьta was ‘something (indefinitely and vaguely) flashing or shimmering’: from such a meaning could equally easily develop both ‘ghost, vision, obsession’ and ‘fantasy, indefinite and vague thought’” [quoted in 5]. M. Fasmer said that in the folk speech the word “daydream” meant “vision, ghost, mind”, and the word “m’chutati” in Old Russian stood for “to dream, to imagine”. The etymologist also claims that the words мигать, прищуривать, мерцать, сверкать (“blink, squint, shimmer, sparkle”) are related to the word мечта as well [27]. According to O.N. Trubachev and colleagues, who provide the most detailed list of meanings of the word Mьсьta, the latter belongs to the category of words “the semantic content of which changes with the change of culture” [30, p. 90].

We can conclude that a daydream is experienced in the Russian lexical field as something vague, undefined, impossible and at the same time desirable, aimed at the future. The daydream is unfulfilled, but its image fascinates and beckons one like magic, giving him or her hope to achieve happiness.

Although this concept of daydreaming can be found in different cultures, it is especially significant for Russian culture: it is not by chance that in Russian classical literature we find so many dreamer characters. On the one hand there are inactive daydreamers such as Oblomov and Manilov, who seek to avoid even the most insignificant effort of action and immerse themselves in pleasant daydreams instead. On the other hand there are heroes who daydream of a better life and a better, fairer world, agonizing over the gap between the ideal world order and the surrounding reality. Among such characters we may recall Alexei Karamazov, Eugene Bazarov, Klim Samgin and many others in Russian literature. The ability to daydream is associated not only with joy and pleasure, but also with the risk of disappointment and pain from the loss of daydreams that have failed to materialize. Despite this, people still dare to daydream, and the image of a daydreaming literary hero is often seen by the reader as more sublime, and his life and actions as more complete, endowed with greater meaning and awareness.

Sociologists, culturologists and philologists emphasize the special role of a daydream in Russian culture and highlight a number of its distinctive features: the social orientation of daydreams (a fair social order as one of the main themes of the Russian dream); the perceived gap between the daydream and the reality; the commitment to the daydream; the ability of Russian people to give themselves entirely to the idea of the common good, sometimes going to an extreme [17; 18; 26]. The Russian “sublime dream” connects the achievement of a personal well-being with the establishment of justice and equal opportunities for all people – that is, with the change in society [26].   

Given the cultural specificity of the concept of a “daydream”, it is not accidental that in works written in Russian language the object of research is the daydream as a product of creative imagination, its place in the structure of activity, and its value character [9; 25; 31]. For example, according to B. I. Dodonov, one of the important functions of a daydream is to project a person’s future attitude to the world, which is then developed and refined in the process of playing out personally significant situations in one’s imagination. At the same time, the subsequent events are then seen and evaluated by a person through the prism of his daydream [9]. In the dissertation study by T.A. Yurieva it was shown that a daydream about one’s professional future is effective if it embodies personal values; at the same time daydreams about the future that are not related to any values have no motivating force [31]. Studies of the content of Russians’ daydreams also show a large share of altruistic daydreams, which, according to different data, make up from 9% to 12% of all respondents’ answers [26].

Thus, the special role of the daydream in the Russian cultural field is determined by the value-related character of the daydream, its reference to the future and its social orientation.

Theoretical model of the study

Definition of daydream and constructive daydreaming

The author’s theoretical model of daydream (developed by E.N. Osin, N.B. Kedrova and P.A. Egorova) is based on the ideas of a daydream as a product of creative constructive daydreaming directed into the future [10; 13; 12]. Following on the ideas of the cultural-activity approach, we define a daydream as an image of the desired future upon which the subject places a special value [7; 6; 25; 9; 3; 31; 11]. Based on the idea of constructive daydreaming, we assume that by daydreaming, a person conceptualizes himself/herself and creates within a daydream a holistic image, an ideal form of his or her intentionality. This daydream image integrates the most important values, goals and motives of a person’s life path and becomes a special psychological reference point in the structure of one’s mental activity. In this sense, a daydream, being exactly an ideal project and reference point, has an independent value and, unlike a desire, does not require immediate and full realization; it is associated with deep value-based emotional experiences and expresses the integrity of a personality [13]. A daydream motivates a person, directs his or her activity and gives meaning and value to human actions, emotionally coloring the choices made by him or her [12; 10].

A daydream, being a holistic image of the desired future, is built of three structural components: the fabric of sensations (sounds, smells, tastes, tactile and visual sensations), the sense (the content of the daydream) and the personal meaning (the emotional coloring of the daydream and its place in the hierarchy of personal motives) [4]. The role of a constructive daydream in the life of an individual can be characterized through the concept of experience introduced by L.S. Vygotsky as a generalized attitude of an individual to his or her future [23]. A daydream does not appear overnight; we assume that the process of daydreaming gradually becomes an independent activity that accompanies a person’s daily life and highlights, preserves and develops the most important aspects of his or her existence in the world for the purpose of development and realization of personality [6; 7; 9; 43; 46; 39; 38]. These most valuable desires, images, emotions, ideals, and abilities are gradually integrated into a single image and projected into the future, creating a unique perspective of the individual’s life path, the author of which is the person himself/herself. Thus, we assume that the presence of a mature daydream directs the future development of the individual. This understanding of daydreams is rooted in the Russian cultural tradition [26] and partially overlaps with the construct of “possible selves” [42].

Emergence and development of daydreams in ontogenesis

The existing theoretical ideas and empirical data allow us to believe that daydreaming starts in the older preschool age (5-6 years), because it is at this time that the need to master future social roles arises, along with the development of goal-setting and internal action planning, and formation of worldview and moral consciousness [29; 2; 24; 11]. Analysis of the adolescents’ and adults’ self-reports shows that the first memories of a daydream or a dream-like favorite game belong to an age of 5-6 years old. According to J. S. Singer, the origins of daydreams can be first seen in story-based role play which develops most intensively at the older preschool age [29; 46]. Daydream and daydreaming become important phenomena in the inner life of adolescents, which is consistent with the tasks of this period such as creating an image of the future and one’s place in it, planning personal and professional perspectives and life path, and mastering adult roles. Studies have shown the influence of adolescent daydreams on real life choices in the future and the connection of the ability to daydream with successful social adaptation [13]. The social situation of development of preschool and adolescence contributes to the emergence and development of daydreaming. Thus, preschool age is the time of mastering the motives of human activity. The child cannot yet carry out this activity in reality, but he or she is perfectly capable of imagining it. Adolescence is the time of choosing a life path, when a teenager, at least in approximation, needs to imagine the desired future, daydream about it, and only then choose his or her path.

According to Newton, daydream formation provides a psychological basis for the realization of major life choices in early adulthood, evaluating one’s achievements in middle age, and giving shape to one’s legacy in old age [38]. D. J. Levinson [ibid.] associates harmonious development of personality with the formation and realization of daydreams.

However, the peculiarities of daydream development at different ages require further study.

Daydream content

The question about the content of daydreams may also prove interesting: how is this or that ideal image of the desired future born? The emergence of daydreams is often associated with a feeling of frustration, when a person, due to various reasons, cannot fulfill his or her desire or satisfy a need [46; 9]. A daydream in this case allows him or her to release tension, feel positive emotions and escape from an unpleasant situation at least in imagination. But is it only the compensation of frustration that constitutes the contents of a daydream?

We hypothesize that the daydream image reflects not only the most important motives, personality values, and frustrating situations that a person experienced in childhood or later, but also his or her abilities and sensitivities in a certain area. This assumption helps explain why the daydreams of people who find themselves in similar life situations will differ. For example, when faced with injustice, some people will daydream of a just retribution and imagine themselves as heroic fighters, while others will daydream of everyone’s right to be sympathized with.

The uniqueness of a daydream is connected with its integrative character. The daydream image reflects both the phenomena of the inner world (one’s motivation, abilities, goals, aspirations, values, events of the past, present and future) and elements of the outer world (the context, situation and time in which a person lives). It is the possibility of such integration of subjective and objective, external and internal, past, present and future elements that allows daydreams to play an important role in the regulation of mental activity.

Types of daydreams

While not claiming the list to be exhaustive or complete, we further present the phenomenological descriptions of the 5 types of daydreams and their putative functions.

A hedonic daydream is a daydream that brings pleasure in a “here and now” situation. Its main function is to improve one’s mood and support his or her emotional state. For example, during a boring working day, when it is cloudy and cold outside, a person can daydream about going to the sea and basking in the sun, alone or surrounded by close people. Such daydreams can be called pleasant fantasies or reveries. They usually arise in a situation of low frustration, improve the mood after daydreaming, are usually not repeated and are quickly replaced by other experiences of the day.

A compensatory daydream. When a person experiences a wide gap between his or her needs or values and reality, a daydream is designed to compensate for this gap and to significantly reduce the level of frustration. For example, daydreams of fame, success, and a fair society in adolescence are often compensatory in nature, when young people, on the one hand, feel the potential of their abilities and, on the other hand, doubt themselves and are starkly aware of their own shortcomings as well as the failures and imperfections of the world. Compensatory daydreaming in this case also performs another important function, as it allows one to protect the personally significant motives and values until the situation becomes more favorable for their realization. Compensatory daydreaming is an extremely important mechanism for when a person is confronted with intolerable experiences in an unescapable situation. A prime example would be the splitting that characterizes children and adults subjected to psychological or physical abuse and other forms of traumatic treatment. Unfortunately, this level of splitting often affects an individual’s mental health.

Thus, compensatory daydreaming differs from hedonic daydreaming in the strength of frustration that a person experiences and the repetitiveness of the daydream theme. In addition, compensatory daydreaming is more characterized by a higher level of absorption in the daydream and the experience of loss of connection with reality, sometimes to the point of dissociation of various parts of the personality. Returning to reality after compensatory daydreaming usually proves disappointing, which leads to a decrease in emotional background. Compensatory daydreaming makes the situation tolerable, but does not significantly change it.

A constructive daydream is an image of the desired future and of one’s self in it which has value for the individual. Constructive daydreaming is characterized by a positive attitude to the daydream and a belief in its feasibility. A constructive daydream is not necessarily realistic because, as we have mentioned, it shows an ideal form of the desired future and does not require immediate full realization. For example, the daydream for people to never get sick nor die that may have arisen as early as preschool age will then motivate a teenager, and later a young adult, to become a scientist or a doctor. The daydream for people to not fight nor hurt each other might lead one to become a social activist or a psychologist. The daydream of a just society may become foundational for a future philosopher or sociologist. Thus, a constructive daydream is a reference point for forming values and finding meaning of life; it also performs a motivating function, supporting the activity aimed at the realization of the daydream. The functions of constructive and compensatory daydreams are similar in the situations when the daydream realization is impossible (young age, limitations of freedom, lack of resources), as both types of daydreams preserve important aspirations of the personality. However, as soon as conditions become favorable, the differences between these types of daydreams become apparent. If the daydream fulfills a compensatory function, it remains in the zone of fantasies and reveries. In the case of constructive daydreaming, the person takes action aimed at the realization of the daydream.

Dream-play and dream-reflection are similar in some ways. In both cases, the play or reflection unfolds in the inner plane and is presented in the form of daydreams and fantasy play. Such daydreams often include fantastic plots that are impossible in reality. An example of a dream-reflection can be an imaginary dialog with the outstanding personalities of the past (writers, artists, poets, composers), whose actions, reflections or creativity had a great influence on the daydreamer. Dream-play allows one to freely interact (play) with external and internal events, often discarding the principle of reality.

Positive functions of daydream and constructive daydreaming

Following J.L. Singer, J.S. Antrobus, E. Klinger, J. Smallwood, L.I., L.S. Vygotsky, S.L. Rubinstein, Bozhovich, B.I. Dodonov, T.A. Yurieva, and others, we consider daydreaming and constructive daydreaming to be an adaptive process with a number of important functions for self-regulation [7; 9; 39; 46; 43; 44; 25].

Developing intrinsic motivation

Generalizing the accumulated data and using the cultural-activity approach as basis [6; 7; 25; 9], we assume that daydreaming is a new formation of personality, the main adaptive function of which is the creation and development of future perspectives on the basis of clarification and integration of motivational formations of personality. It is not a coincidence that the peak of daydreaming frequency, according to J. L. Singer’s research [46], falls on adolescence, when the time perspective expands and the subject’s reflection of his or her values and motives occurs. We believe that a constructive daydream is a unique psychological cultural tool (a concept introduced by L.S. Vygotsky [8]) by which an adolescent, forming an image of the desired future and the best possible self, masters his or her motivation and in a sense becomes the author of the path of his or her development. The daydream which he or she has created sets the vector of behavior and gives his or her actions direction and meaning [6]. In K. Levin’s terms, the adolescent’s behavior is organized and goes from reflecting the field to reflecting the volition [14]. In the framework of S. Muddy’s concept [40; 19], daydreams and constructive daydreaming are associated with the realization of psychological needs of the person in symbolization, imagination, and judgment, contributing to making a choice in favor of new opportunities rather than preserving the status quo.

We assume that the development of constructive daydreaming is associated with the awareness of one’s own motivation [39; 12] and the reliance on internal, personally significant motives and goals, as opposed to external goals and aspirations. A clear understanding of one’s needs, desires, and values will, in turn, promote greater autonomy, belief in one’s capabilities, and the experience of meaningfulness and authorship of one’s life. Thus, the development of daydreams accompanies the development of personality [10], the formation of self-determination and integration of motivation [45].

Orientation in the decision-making process

Daydream participation in the processes of regulation implies its influence on the processes of decision-making and life choice. In the work devoted to the study of the relationship between daydreams and choice, we assumed that “daydreams and choice meet at the point of possible future: daydreams help to create certainty and build a possible future, and choice – to create it, forming an individual life style” [12, p. 3]. However, the mechanisms of this influence are not yet sufficiently clear. It might be that a daydream, as an image of the desired future and a value reference point, allows a person to better realize his or her own desires, values and meanings. As part of the process of self-determination [15], daydreaming guides choices and influences the emotional evaluation of decisions and actions [12].   

Developing a temporal perspective of the future

The category of time allows us to draw an important difference between a constructive daydream and a fantasy, one that was emphasized by J. Niva [21]: a fantasy leaves a person outside of the flow of time, whereas a constructive daydream is always connected with experiencing it (cf., for example, the unchanging life of the inhabitants of Oblomovka and the dynamic life of Andrei Stoltz from I.A. Goncharov’s novel “Oblomov”). No matter how fantastic a constructive daydream is, it is always correlated with reality and takes into account the existential fact of the flow of time, acting as a fundamental project of personality [1]. However, it is only in a daydream, thanks to its fantastical nature, that a person is free to go beyond the limitations of reality and feel, experience to the extreme what is valuable to him or her.

Considering the constructive daydream as a projection of one’s self and ideals into the future, we believe that the daydream also integrates the contexts of the past (what one values in oneself and one’s past) and the present (the environmental opportunities one sees around oneself). In F. Zimbardo’s model of temporal perspective, a balanced temporal perspective is seen as the ability to link and flexibly engage the contexts of past, present, and future according to the demands of the situation and the needs and values of the subject [33]. We hypothesize that constructive daydreaming and daydream imagery, integrating all 3 temporal aspects of experience, will contribute to the development of a balanced temporal perspective.

Development of the value content of motivation

The daydream projects into the future, both from a personal and a social perspective: the daydream reflects not only what is important for a person situationally or in a more or less close perspective (this is characteristic of daydreaming in the broad sense as “mind-wandering” [39; 46]), but also social values (justice, equality, peace, beauty and harmony, etc.). This value aspect of the daydream phenomenon is practically not studied. Most foreign authors, until recently, chose the influence of daydreaming on cognitive processes as subject of research, practically excluding the motivational and value spheres [see, e.g., 43; 44], while in domestic science there are very few studies of daydreams in general [31; 10].

B.I. Dodonov suggests that the altruistic orientation of personality is not fully realized in real activity and “lives” in daydreams. In addition, he refutes the idea of a daydream as only a release of tension. According to B.I. Dodonov, by transferring the solution of a difficult situation from reality to imagination, a daydream fixes a new goal in consciousness: it does not simply ease tension, but, on the contrary, it creates new difficult tasks, challenges the person [9].

Such an understanding of daydreams corresponds to the theories of personality development as a movement from homeostasis to heterostasis [22] and transition from need regulation to value regulation [20; 28]. Developing these ideas, modern models of positive personality functioning distinguish between hedonia and eudaemonia as two types of motivation and their corresponding states with qualitative specificity [36; 50]. Hedonic motivation is aimed at satisfying needs and maintaining homeostasis and manifests itself in experiences of pleasure and satisfaction. Eudemonic motivation, on the contrary, is associated with overcoming, personal growth, search and realization of meaning and manifests in experiencing interest. In other words, eudaemonic motivation is associated with tasks that require exertion and effort [36]. We assume that the expression of constructive daydreaming is associated with eudaemonic motivation.

Effects on psychological well-being.

Finally, one of the criteria of the positive nature of daydreaming may be its relationship with psychological well-being, shown in separate studies [32]. Studies on the relationship between daydreams and everyday goals show that achieving goals that approximate the image of the best possible self is positively related to the level of psychological well-being [35]. Some studies showing a decrease in happiness after daydreaming [37], as well as a negative relationship of daydreaming frequency with life satisfaction [41], do not take into account the heterogeneity of the daydreaming phenomenon. The study of different daydreaming styles by J. L. Singer showed a positive relationship between positive constructive daydreaming and the level of psychological well-being, with negative or absent relationships for other types of daydreaming [32].

In addition, the decrease in the level of happiness after daydreaming as a situational effect does not contradict the assumption about the connection of constructive daydreaming with psychological well-being at the level of personal dispositions. Since a daydream, unlike a wish, cannot be realized immediately, the process of daydreaming is associated with the experience of a gap between the daydream and reality and requires the personality’s ability to withstand this tension [28]. This assumption is consistent with the data on the positive relationship of daydreaming with the capacity for delayed reward with children and adults [46; 47].

We assume that unformed or unrealistic daydreams will lead to difficulties in understanding one’s desires, building a perspective of the future, and making important decisions in life, as well as, consequently, to an increase in the level of anxiety. At the same time, the absence of daydreams and loss of faith in their achievability will be associated with an increase in depressive states, which are experienced as a loss of hope and the impossibility of a “good” future [13].

Thus, in the context of daydreams, a person does not necessarily experience only positive emotions, but the very presence of a daydream, belief in its usefulness and feasibility should be associated with psychological well-being.

Conclusion

Thus, a constructive daydream is a product of the process of creative daydreaming about the future, which serves a number of positive functions in the regulation of mental activity. We assume that the study of daydreams and constructive daydreaming will allow us to see their contribution to the development of internal motivation, personal autonomy, feeling of meaningfulness of one’s life and actions, as well as time perspective. We also assume that the daydream, performing an orienting function, will participate in the emotional and value regulation of activity, influencing the decision-making process [12]. Finally, we hypothesize that the presence of a daydream, the belief in its usefulness and possibility of its fulfillment contribute to a higher level of psychological well-being of the individual. The second part of this article is devoted to the description of the empirical study and verification of the formulated hypotheses.

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