Teresa L. DeCicco

Culture, religion, and the underlying value dimensions of the metapersonal self-construal

The metapersonal self-construal (MPS) is presented in the context of a three-factor model of self-construal that is grounded in the literature on culture and values. The MPS is an understanding of the self as profoundly interconnected with all humanity and nature. It is distinct from the independent and interdependent self-construals and may emerge from ones cultural, religious, or spiritual background. Relating self-construal with a structural model of values, Study 1 indicated that while the independent and interdependent self-construals marked each end of a continuum, the MPS was associated with a unique cluster of values centred around universalism. Studies 2 and 3 found support for the predicted effects of membership in Buddhist groups and identification with Aboriginal culture on MPS. These results support the MPS as a unique understanding of the self that reflects surrounding beliefs and values. Implications for understanding the relationship between spirituality and well-being are discussed.

Examining the Storytelling Method of Dream Interpretation with Canadian Soldiers

The current study extended previous research on the content of the dreams of Canadian soldiers to the discovery obtained from the dreams. Participants included 25 Canadian male soldiers with operational experience in Afghanistan as well as an age and gender matched control group of 25 Canadian male civilians. Each participant filled out The Storytelling Method worksheet, and discovery passages were coded following Hall and Van de Castle content analysis guidelines. Many significant relationships were found among discovery categories for soldiers. Categories of discovery from the dream were significantly different between soldiers and civilians and support the continuity hypothesis, as was found in previous research with dream imagery. As expected, soldiers had discovery relating to specific events from tours overseas as well as much more discovery about the past when compared to civilians. Years of service in the military was also correlated with relevant discovery categories for soldiers. Limitations as well as future directions for dream interpretation techniques with soldiers are discussed.

Dreams with Sexual Imagery: Gender Differences in Content between Canadians and Italians

This research extends previous investigations on dreams with sexual imagery while beginning the empirical investigation across cultures and between genders. To extend previous cultural research, sexual dream imagery and frequency between Italian and Canadian men and women were examined. The first study consisted of two samples of 267 dreams (112 male and 155 female) from Trent University, Canada and Tor Vergata University, Italy. The second study consisted of two samples of 100 dreams with sexual content (50 male and 50 female) from Canadian and Italian students. Computer textual analysis of dream content categories revealed that sexual imagery and frequency of sexual dream content was consistent with previous research. New findings were found between the two cultures and across gender. For dreams in general, differences were found between Italian males and Italian females, and, between Italian females and Canadian females. These studies show that both cultural and gender differences are relevant for dreams with sexual imagery. Further investigations are warranted and should be extended to other cultural groups now that the protocol has been established through these studies. Limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.