ABSTRACT
Quantitative content-analysis refers to quantitative techniques for extracting meaning from dreams, fantasy, and other narrative materials. Haber and Erdelyi, for example, showed that apparently haphazard free-associations following a subliminal stimulus reflected some of the subliminal information once the associations were rated numerically and aggregated. Later, the application of signal detection theory, a quantitative contribution of psychophysics, led to the theoretical understanding of the fantasy recoveries as β (criterion) rather than dʹ (sensitivity) effects. Moretti, Jockers, and others in the “Stanford Literary Lab” applied quantitative techniques to the analysis of literary materials, from Hamlet to “Bankspeak” (ugly prose) to 19th-century British novels. Independently, Schweickert analyzed social networks in dreams, producing beautiful graphic representations that were psychologically meaningful. A huge modern literature has accumulated on the quantitative content-analysis of dreams pioneered by figures such as Hall, Van De Castle, Domhoff, Hartmann, Kunzendorf, Schredl, and Bulkeley, which demonstrated a basic continuity between dreams and awake cognition. Quantitative content-analysis of dreams has yielded a variety of reliable findings, for example, men dream more about sex, physical aggression, animals—and other men—than do women. Clear patterns with psychological implications can be demonstrated, for example, the relative amount of aggression directed at different family members which tend to parallel awake dispositions. Some problems of modern quantitative analysis are considered, for example, the neglect of deep and unconscious meanings.
