Gender, Sex Role Orientation, and Dreaming

Despite the large number of studies addressing gender differences in dream recall and other dream-related variables, research regarding whether these differences might be affected by sex role orientation is rather scarce. The findings of the present online study clearly indicate that sex role orientation, femininity/expressivity, and masculinity/instrumentality affects dream variables such as dream recall frequency, nightmare frequency, dream tone, and emotional intensity as well as attitude toward dreaming. Expressivity was strongly correlated with the emotional intensity of dreams whereas instrumentality was associated with more positively toned dreams; a finding which supports the continuity hypothesis of dreaming. The analyses provided support for the idea that attitude toward dreams might moderate the effect of sex role orientation (femininity/expressivity) and biological sex on dream recall frequency. As sex role orientation did not completely explain the gender differences, it will be fruitful to study other variables like the processing of emotional information in the brain or gender-specific dream socialization in order to understand the gender differences in dreaming more fully.