Applying a modern situational measure to improve the reliability, validity, and outcome predictability of dream assessment
Abstract
Dreams are hallucinatory activity occurring during sleep that nearly everyone experiences. To understand and research dreams, the field needs a reliable and valid dream assessment tool. The current, most used, measure (Hall and Van de Castle measure) has presented with various reliability and validity issues since its development in 1966. I propose adapting the DIAMONDS taxonomy for situational characteristics to assess dream content. The validation process of this adapted measure has begun with foundational work informing the development of dream-specific subscales. In two preliminary studies I provide some evidence for substantive and structural validity of the adapted measure. Interim data analysis (n=53) in a larger study begins to establish its external validity as it relates to the measure’s ability to predict next-day affect. The completion of this study should present some evidence of all phases of the validation process, therefore providing the field with a novel validated dream assessment tool.