Dreams: Sex Differences in Aggressive Content

Summary

The dream series of 42 male college students and 42 female college students were analyzed for occurrence of aggressive actions in terms of (a) frequency, (b) direction, whether initiated from the dreamer or directed to the dreamer, (c) characters in the dream who were aggressors or victims, and (d) intensity. These variables were further analyzed in terms of their occurrence in the men's dreams and then, in the women's dreams with these results:

	The analysis of dreams for sex differences in aggression shows that (a) men are more aggressive than, and initiate more aggression than the women, (b) men and women do not differ in amount of aggressive actions they receive, (c) men exceed the women in average intensity of aggression, and exceed the women in aggression initiated or received by them in dreams.
	Men initiate as much aggression as they receive. Aggressive actions received by the men are more intense than those they initiated.
	The men involve as their most frequent aggressors or victims, (a) males, (b) people their own age or of unknown age, and (c) people who are strangers.
	Women receive more aggression than they initiate. They receive more intense aggressive actions than they initiate.
	The women employ as both aggressors and victims, (a) people of both sexes, (b) people who are about the same age as the dreamer or whose age is not specified in the dream report, and (c) people who are either familiar to the dreamer or strangers.
	(a) The men employ males to a greater degree than the women, while the women employ females to a greater degree than the men in all aggressive actions, (b) the women receive more aggression from people older than themselves than the men, while the men receive more aggression from people whose age is unspecified than the women. No sex differences are found in aggression initiated by the men and women involving older people, those who are their own age, or people whose age is unspecified, (c) the men receive more aggression from strangers than the women, while the women receive more aggression from familiar people than the men, (d) the men and women do not differ in aggression directed towards familiar people. For frequency of aggressive actions it is suggested that like the TAT, dreams tend to “mirror” the real life situation of the individual insofar as aggression is concerned, but in addition, especially with men, dreams serve as a means of aggression that rarely, if ever, finds outlet in the waking state of the dreamer. The involvement of familiar people and strangers in aggression was explained on the basis of residual ego functioning which operates so that familiar people are placed in a context of minor aggression and strangers are placed in a context of serious aggression.