Gackenbach, J.I. (2015, May). Culture, Media Use and Dreams: China and Canada. Paper presented at Digital Diversity: Writing, Feminism and Culture, Edmonton, Alberta.

1. JAYNE GACKENBACH
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
MACEWAN UNIVERSITY
Culture, Media Use and
Dreams: China and
Canada
Paper presented at Digital Diversity
Conference, Alberta, 2015

2. Collaborators
Other Investigators
Ming-Ni Lee
Zongkui Zhou
Gino Yu
William Wei
Institutional Affiliation & Department
National Dong Hwa University; Department of
Counseling and Clinical Psychology
Central China Normal University; School of Psychology
Hong Kong Polytechnic University; School of Design
MacEwan University, Business, Asia Pacific Management

3. Role of Dreaming in
AI-Human
Interactions: Video
game play

4. Computers in Childhood
95% of toys today include a computer chip

5. A Magazine is an iPad that Doesn’t
Work

6. Ipad Games for Cats

7. Not just children and pets are
immersed in virtual worlds

8. Reality: Virtual and Otherwise
Waking reality is a mental
construction
Dream and altered state
realities are alternative
constructions
Virtual reality is a
mediated construction

9. Multiple Realities
• We regularly participate in them
• While experiencing them we don’t ask
which is more real
• VR enhances the “reality” of
technologically mediated simulations

10. Presence
• Perceptual illusion of
nonmediation
• Includes:
• social richness
• immersion
• Perfect Presence is Holodeck

11. High Presence in VR
occurred with increases in
◦ involvement,
◦ control,
◦ selective attention,
◦ perceptual fidelity and
◦ opportunity to mimic real world
experiences

12. What is virtual reality?
A broad definition is the amalgamation of experiencing that you are
somewhere else (presence) while deadening the external stimuli and
interacting with the virtual environment (engagement).

13. Cross modal affects
Game transfer phenomena
“Video games have become a matter
of emotional touch, evoking not just
sensations but lasting emotive
imprints, which hold for the gamer
many of the same characteristics as
memorable real life experiences” (Ortiz
de Gortari, 2007).

14. When “Real” Seems Mediated:
Inverse Presence
Categories of this “illusion of mediation”:
◦ positive (when people perceive natural beauty as
mediated),
◦ negative (when people perceive a disaster, crime, or
other tragedy such as the events of September 11,
2001, as mediated), and
◦ unusual (when close connections between people’s
“real life” activities and mediated experiences lead
them to confuse the former with the latter).

15. Impacts on Other Realities
Video Games & Dreams Lab
at MacEwan University

16. Why study Video Games?
The most widely experienced VR that can be very
immersive/present is video game play
◦ video game players as those who are the most immersed in virtual
worlds for well over the 10,000 hours often cited to determine
expertise
As wider applications of computer technology occur other
high end uses are now being investigated in our lab, i.e.,
social media use

17. Why Study Dreams?
Attitudes towards dreams
◦ in west they are seen as not important
◦ In east viewed more positively
Function of dreams
◦ Memory consolidation
◦ Emotional regulation
◦ Problem solving
◦ Creative inspiration
Dreams are autobiographies
Response Bias
◦ Tendency to present oneself in a
positive light
◦ Not present in dreams, which
while metaphoric, are relatively
free of waking defense
mechanisms.
◦ Dream records and reports of
dream experiences may offer a
more unobtrusive way to
measure attitudes and
experiences

18. SIMPLE Dream Effects FROM GAMING
1. No game in dream (63%)
2. Game & Dream (37%)
a. In the dream the dream ego is in the game world
– the dream is the game (63% )
b. In the dream playing a video game is mentioned
c. In the dream games are mentioned

19. Why study gamers dreams?
Isn’t it all just incorporation?
◦Yes gamers dream about games
◦And no,
Gamers dreams may show fundamental
structural differences and/or clinically
relevant differences in their dreams

20. Individual Differences Examined
Gender
Personality
◦ Big 5
◦ Boundaries
◦ Masculinity-femininity
◦ Self construal
Culture – focus of this inquiry

21. 2014

22. Methods
Participants
There were 451 participants from Canada, 135 males and
316 females. There were 455 participants from China, 119
males and 336 females, located in Wuhan, Taiwan and Hong
Kong. In total, there were 906 participants, 254 males and
652 females.

23. Measurements
Seven demographic aspects were solicited, including: sex, age, education, marital status, city
and country of residence, race/ethnicity, occupation, and first language.
video game play questions have been used in previous research in this laboratory
(Gackenbach & Rosie, 2009).
social media questions were adapted from a longer scale (Gackenbach & Boyes, 2013) and
have been modified to include Chinese social media.
Dream Intensity Scale (Yu, 2010) was administered as a self-report scale containing 23 items,
in order to measure dream intensity as a trait variable composed of multiple dimensions.
recording a recent dream and participants were asked to rate their dream along 15
emotional dimensions.
self-construal by using the Independent versus Interdependent Self Scales (IISS; Lu &
Gilmour, 2007).

24. Procedure
• These scales were posted online through Qualtric.com
• Informed consent & debriefing statement
• All surveys were offered in English in Canada and in Hong Kong
but in either simple or traditional Chinese in Hong Kong, Taiwan
and Wuhan.
• If participants opted out of the study, or if they finished the
surveys, they were given a debriefing statement.

25. Translation Issues
A set of Chinese dreams from Taiwan which were translated by Yue and Coco were examined in two
ways: word count and dream coding. Word count results are below:
Response ID for dream #words/dre
am English
Yue
#words/drea
m English
Coco
R_dpqcrRXXMv7pR4x 286 270
R_3R869XlIb8OKLt3 382 409
R_4Jbn42TqmczLKAd 398 351
R_9NQPxzJBYnj7R3f 154 119
R_8HZ8uSgPJIoWiZT 216 200
R_51oDBtMeBje4DZP* 173 620
R_cIVptVKDCxtL8wt 265 234
R_bkqqv4iUI3ilYWx 120 112
R_6eOjMZ2IG5pad3D 61 49
R_ene0XcKzrCFC45f 154 146
Average all 10 dreams 221 251
Average without outlier* 226 210
Correlation for #words/dream with
outlier = 0.52, nonsignificant
Correlation for #words/dream
without outlier = 0.98, p<.0001

26. Dream content analysis
using HVDC: Reliability
Response ID for dream Sarah HVDC coder Ali HVDC coder
R_dpqcrRXXMv7pR4x 35/49= 71% 32/44=72.7%.
R_3R869XlIb8OKLt3 42/49= 86% 33/47=70.2%
R_4Jbn42TqmczLKAd 50/64= 78% 44/55=84.3%
R_9NQPxzJBYnj7R3f 22/25= 88% 17/19 = 89.5%
R_8HZ8uSgPJIoWiZT 34/38=89% 33/40=82.5%
R_51oDBtMeBje4DZP* 26/58=45% 26/60=43.3%
R_cIVptVKDCxtL8wt 30/44=68% 32/40=80%
R_bkqqv4iUI3ilYWx 12/15=80% 7/8=87.5%
R_6eOjMZ2IG5pad3D 13/15=87% 6/7=85.7%
R_ene0XcKzrCFC45f 28/31=90% 18/26=69.2%
Average all 10 dreams 78.2% 76.49%
Average without
outlier*
81.9% 80.2%

27. Dream content correlations for
HVDC subscales (Ali coding)
Blue=Yue;
Yellow=Coco Mean
Std.
Deviation N
CHAR 3.20 1.619 10
AGGRESSION .50 .850 10
FRIENDLINES
S
.80 1.229 10
SEX .00 .000 10
ACTIVITIES 10.60 8.435 10
SUCC .10 .316 10
FAIL .00 .000 10
M-FORTUNE .20 .422 10
G-FORT .10 .316 10
EMOT .90 1.197 10
SET 1.40 .966 10
OBJ 6.30 3.433 10
MOD 2.60 1.713 10
char1 3.6000 2.41293 10
agg .8000 1.61933 10
friend .8000 1.22927 10
sex1 .0000 .00000 10
act 11.4000 8.43538 10
suc .1000 .31623 10
fail1 .1000 .31623 10
misfor .3000 .48305 10
goodfor .1000 .31623 10
emo1 1.2000 1.22927 10
setting 1.6000 1.07497 10
objects 6.7000 3.77271 10
modifiers 2.3000 1.76698 10
Correlation between translations for
each subscale
With char1r=0.961, p<.0001
With agg r=0.888, p=.001
With friend r=1.00, p<.0001
None coded for either translation
With act r=0.807, p=.005
With suc r=1.00, p<.0001
None coded for either translation
With misfor r=0.764, p=.01
With goodfor r=1.0, p<.0001
With emo1 r=0.695, p=.026
With setting r=0.813, p=.004
With objects r=0.805, p=.005
With modifiers r=0.889, p=.001

28. Average correlations
Ali Average correlation between each subscale for each translation
r=0.894 (none coded was treated as a 1, perfect agreement thus
perfect correlation)
Sarah Average correlation between each subscale for each
translation r=0.927 (none coded was treated as a 1, perfect
agreement thus perfect correlation)

29. Summary of Translation Issues
• While there are translation differences they make very little impact on
the final product of dream coding.
• The translation issues are substantive enough to warrant a second
examination of the dreams by the primary translator, Yue.
• She was given instructions to look for missed segments of dreams,
missed words, and possible mistranslations.
• I provided her with the feedback from this report along with the
commentary by both Luna on translation, the 10 dreams from Coco,
and the commentary on coding issue from Ali.

30. Further Summary
Yue was particularly well qualified to continue in the role of primary translator, not only
because her native language is Chinese, but also she is a psychology major at a nearby
university and has taken a course in dreams.
◦ She is experienced with not only translation issues,
◦ Some are unique to dreams.
◦ She chose to use first person tense in many of the dreams while other less experienced
translators may not have made that choice.
◦ Almost all dream transcripts in English speak in first person and indeed speaks to a major
function of dreams, memory consolidation.
◦ That said this could be a culture issue like the one with time referents.

31. Hall &Van de Castle Coding System
– Domhoff’s Scientific Approach
Hall, Van de Castle, Domhoff

32. Hall &Van de Castle Coding System
Calvin Hall & Robert Van de Castle (1966).
Intricate coding system relying solely on dream reports to
determine the meaning of a dream.
Assumption: Frequency equals intensity
Advantages (Domhoff, 1996):
◦ high inter-rater reliability,
◦ well developed norms, and
◦ uses categories which are pertinent to waking concerns that may
influence dreaming.

33. Hall and Van de Castle Coding System
Character
Social
Interactions
Striving
Misfortune/
Good Fortune
Emotions
Physical
SurroundingsDescriptive Elements
8 General
Categories

34. Hall and Van de Castle Coding System
DreamSAT spreadsheet
(Schneider & Domhoff, 2006)
Percentages and rates
(Dreamresearch.net)

35. Results with HVDC

36. Individual Differences: Self Construal
• Independent subscale (sum of 21 items)
• Collectivist or interdependent subscale (sum of 21 items)
• Sex x country ANOVA
• No difference for independent
• Main effect for country for collectivist:
Wuhan>Taiwan>Hong Kong>Canada

37. -1.0 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 +0.2 +0.4 +0.6 +0.8 +1.0
Male/Female Percent
Familiarity Percent
Friends Percent
Family Percent
Dead & Imaginary Percent
Animal Percent
Aggression/Friendliness Percent
Befriender Percent
Aggressor Percent
Physical Aggression Percent
A/C Index
F/C Index
S/C Index
Indoor Setting Percent
Familiar Setting Percent
Self-Negativity Percent
Bodily Misfortunes Percent
Negative Emotions Percent
Dreamer-Involved Success Percent
Torso/Anatomy Percent
Aggression
Friendliness
Sexuality
Misfortune
Good Fortune
Success
Failure
Striving
vs. canada
mergedchina

38. -1.0 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 +0.2 +0.4 +0.6 +0.8 +1.0
Aggression/Friendliness Percent
Physical Aggression Percent
F/C Index
Indoor Setting Percent
Self-Negativity Percent
Torso/Anatomy Percent
Friendliness
Sexuality
Good Fortune
vs. canada
mergedchina

39. HVDC differences as a function of
video game play history: MALES
Male high video game play:
China versus Canada
◦ Befriender: China (86%) > Canada
(33%)
◦ Dreamer involved success: Canada
(80%) > China (20%)
◦ Sexuality: Canada (9%) > China
(0%)

40. HVDC differences as a function of
video game play history: MALES
Male low video game play: China versus
Canada
◦ Animals: China (5%) > Canada (0%)
◦ Aggression/friendliness: Canada (89%) > China
(38%)
◦ Self Negativity: Canada (100%) > China (50%)
◦ Friendliness: China (30%) > Canada (8%)
◦ Sexuality: Canada (9%) > China (0%)
◦ Success: China (9%) > Canada (0%)
◦ Striving: China (22%) > Canada (4%)

41. HVDC differences as a function of
video game play history: FEMALES
Female high video game play:
China versus Canada
◦ Dead/imaginary char: China (4%) >
Canada (0%)
◦ Aggression/friendliness: China (53%)
> Canada (10%)
◦ Aggression: China (29%) > Canada
(4%)

42. HVDC differences as a function of
video game play history: FEMALES
Female low video game play: China
versus Canada
◦ Aggression/friendliness: Canada (59%) > China
(43%)
◦ Physical Aggression Percent: Canada (81%) >
China (64%)
◦ Indoor settings: Canada (73%) > China (59%)
◦ Familiar settings: Canada (65%) > China (51%)
◦ Self-Negativity Percent: Canada (76%) > China
(59%)
◦ Friendliness: China (30%) > Canada (18%)

43. More Information
◦ Scholarly: Video Game Play and Consciousness, NOVA Science Publishers (Editor),
September, 2012
◦ Popular: Play Reality (written with my gamer son as narrator), available at
www.playreality.ca and online at Amazon