Browsing by Theses - Programme "PhD in Psychology"

Objective: Existing dream studies have identified differences between biological females and males, with some exploring the impact of sex role orientation on dream experiences. These differences, based on biological sex and sex role orientation, can overlap significantly. This overlap is often due to the close alignment of sex role orientation and biological sex, where biological males are generally more masculine, and biological females are more feminine. Transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) individuals, who do not conform to their birth-assigned gender, provide an opportunity to examine the influence of biological construct (biological sex) and psychological constructs (self-identified gender and sex role orientation), which are less aligned than cisgender individuals.
Method: This study recruited eighty-five TGNC individuals. Self-reported measures were used to assess participants’ sex role orientation, dream intensity, attitudes toward dreams, and dream insights.
Results: Attitudes toward dreams positively mediated the relationship between femininity and overall dream intensity, including recall frequency, as well as the negative relationship between femininity and aggressive dream content. Positive attitudes toward dreams and higher levels of masculinity were associated with sexual dream content. Attitudes toward dreams positively predicted insights from dreams, but only for transgender females and not transgender males.
Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that TGNC individuals exhibit dream experiences that align with their self-identified gender despite their anatomical characteristics. The current study provides evidence that the self-identified gender and adopted sex role orientation of TGNC individuals significantly influence their dream experiences. This highlights the importance of considering psychological constructs, such as gender and sex role orientation, in the study of dream experiences in this population, rather than focusing solely on biological sex.

335 pages