Your friend learns you are taking psychology and asks you, "Why do people dream?" Based on the theories and research on dreams you've learned about in this course, what answer would you give your friend?
What will be an ideal response?
ANSWER:
Although there is not yet a definitive explanation of why people dream, there are a number of widely held theories. Three of the most common are as follows: first, some have proposed that dreams are the process by which mammals consolidate information that has survival value. Freud's explanation was that dreams are a type of wish fulfillment, which represent a way to satisfy unconscious wishes that are too disturbing to be considered when awake. A third explanation is that dreams are just the result of random neural activity that occurs as a byproduct of REM sleep. This is known as the activation-synthesis theory and is based on the idea that the hindbrain continues to stimulate other areas of the brain during REM sleep and the cortex just tries to interpret these random signals as best it can, which results in the production of dreams. Although it is known that one's conscious concerns can influence dreams, there is no agreement as to whether dreams aid people in solving their problems.
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Brenda has learned to take an over-the-counter medication 30 minutes before she eats a spicy meal. When she does this, she is able to prevent the heartburn and indigestion that she would experience otherwise. This is an example of
a. escape learning. b. positive reinforcement. c. classical conditioning. d. avoidance learning.
The first episode of schizophrenia typically occurs in which age group?
A) infancy to childhood B) childhood to adolescence C) late adolescence to early adulthood D) adulthood
The "spontaneous firing rate" of a neuron refers to ____.
A. its resting potential B. its rate of energy consumption C. its rate of producing action potentials even when it is not stimulated D. the velocity of its action potentials under normal conditions
The goal of Ellis's REBT is to
a) understand the causes of pathological behavior. b) remove the symptoms of pathological behavior. c) free individuals to develop their own constructive belief systems. d) help individuals to live according to social and cultural norms.