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Emotional Selection is a psychological dream theory developed by
Richard Coutts
of Coutts
Design Inc and published in the April, 2008, issue of
Psychological Reports. The article's title, summary, and
citation information are listed to the right. To obtain a copy, contact
MRoberts@AmmonsScientific.com. Richard may be contacted at
Richard@CouttsDesignInc.com. |
DREAMS AS
MODIFIERS AND TESTS OF MENTAL SCHEMAS:
AN EMOTIONAL SELECTION HYPOTHESIS
Summary -- A process is proposed that helps a person adapt to a social
environment. During sleep, this process executes a set of dreams with
social content that schemas tentatively incorporate by self-modifying. Due
to vast interconnectivity that exists amongst social schemas, such
modifications may introduce accidental, maladaptive conflicts.
Consequently, a second set of dreams is executed in the form of test
scenarios in order to evaluate the schema modifications effected by the
first set of dreams. The process would monitor emotions generated during
these latter dream tests. If prior, tentative modifications alleviate
anxiety, frustration, sadness, or in other ways appear emotionally
adaptive, they would be selected for retention. Those modifications that
compare negatively to existing, unchanged schemas would be abandoned or
further modified and tested. The correspondences of these hypotheses to
the sleep cycle, previous dream studies, and functional neurological
processes are discussed.
Psychological
Reports, 2008, 102, 561-574. © Psychological Reports 2008 |