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Download Download The nightmare protection hypothesis I J o D R The nightmare protection hypothesis: An experi- mental inquiry Carson Flockhart & Jayne Gackenbach Grant MacEwan University, Edmonton, Canada Summary. Using the ideas generated in Revonsuo and Valli’s Threat Simulation model of the function of dreaming, previ- ous research looked at how military personal’s dreams were associated with video game play. A nightmare protection effect was found and replicated using an undergraduate student population. Based on the previous findings, in this study an experimental manipulation was conducted where male participants engaged in one of three computer tasks, including gaming and search. All participants also viewed a frightening movie clip. Following the laboratory session respondents were asked to report a dream. The Threat Simulation method of coding dreams was used to assess threat in participant’s dreams. The major hypothesis was that playing a combat centric game would be more likely to result in behaviors in the dream which were less nightmarish after seeing the frightening movie clip, relative to playing a creative video game or doing a computer search task. The results support the thesis for high end male gamers playing combat centric video games close in time to being exposed to a frightening film clip. These young men are either not perceiving the same danger in their follow-up dream as threatening or that the content is not as scary as those without a recent experience of combat centric gaming. Keywords: threat simulation; nightmare protection; combat centric; dreams; video games 1. Introduction Their threat simulation theory postulated that dreams were artificial simulations where humans could safely en- Of increasing concern in society is the use of video games gage while practicing well learned defensive manoeuvers for health, of which there are an ever increasing pool. Video to certain dangerous situations or experiences. These de- games are being used to aid in visualization tasks. For in- fensive manoeuvers would then transfer over to the waking stance, those suffering from diabetes, asthma, heart dis- world and prove to be evolutionarily beneficial to our sur- ease and cancer would play a game called Re-mission to vival as a species. Nightmares, however, are the failure of help them manage and try to fight back against their con- this threat simulation system, in that the point of the simula- ditions. Games such as the Wii- Habilitation can actually tion is for the brain to regulate negative emotions and as a be used in virtual or physical rehabilitation sessions. Video consequence at times, while in these threatening situations games can also offer invaluable resources for improvement to foster the learning of defensive tactics. In the case of a of health education and life style changes in all ages with nightmare, this threat regulator breaks down and is unable game such as Wii Fit Plus for physical activity using games to deal with the total influx of negative emotions and so a and Fit Brains from Luminosity for Mental health improve- wake up event usually follows. Levin and Nielson (2009) ments (Digitome, 2011). summarized research into nightmares, they concluded that Another health problem, which is the focus of the pres- emotional reactivity and past history of traumas, can in- ent inquiry, is nightmares. Nightmares, while fascinating hu- crease a person’s likelihood of experiencing a nightmare. mans for centuries, still plague us with horrific experiences In the case of emotional reactivity, a person’s individual and visions. They occur commonly in the population with level of affect disstress, which is their level of reaction to three to five percent of the population reporting that they events with high levels of negative emotional reactivity, im- suffer from nightmares (Schredl, Landgraf, & Zeiler, 2003). pacts the likelihood of a dream being so stressful that the The purpose of dreams and nightmares is still under debate dreamer awakens. As well, past history of trauma can create however Revonsuo and Valli (2000) proposed that a function a susceptibility in a person to experience nightmares. The of dreams from an evolutionary perspective. best example is post-traumatic stress disorder which can be characterized by extremely vivid nightmares that may actually re-traumatize a person’s suffering from them. This Corresponding address: would be more likely in individuals with a history of trauma Prof. Jayne Gackenbach, Department of Psychology, Grant or high emotional reactivity. Thus controlling for these pre- MacEwan University, 10700-104 Ave., Edmonton, Canada existing conditions is important in any study examining the T5J 4S2. effects of an activity on night time dreams. Email: [email protected] The effects of video game play on dreams and nightmares has been initially explored. Some research has examined Submitted for publication: January 2016 how video game play effects the nightmare experienced by Accepted for publication: February 2017 gamers (Gackenbach, Kuruvilla, Dopko, & Le, 2010, 127- International Journal of Dream Research Volume 10, No. 1 (2017) 1 The nightmare protection hypothesis I J o D R 136). They found through dream content analysis that male 2. Method gamers behaved less often aggressively, but when they did it was more intense. It was a combination of this intense 2.1. Participants infrequent aggression, with a reduced likelihood of experi- encing misfortune in the dream that seems to lead to these Students enrolled in introductory psychology courses at a gamers experiencing a sense of empowerment rather than western Canadian university served as the research par- fear from the threatening dreams. This finding was sup- ticipants. A total of 146 students were involved in the study. ported in a follow up study which looked at threat elements Of this a total 134 provided sufficient information for data in the dreams of those with varying frequency of gaming analysis. These were all male of which all but two had been (Gackenbach & Kuruvilla, 2008). married while the rest were single. Ethnicity was split into They concluded that the major hypothesis that gamers Caucasian and non-Caucasian. Nineteen did not report have developed adaptive dream strategies for processing this information. Of the rest, 81 said they were Caucasian violent game play was broadly supported. In fact, all threat and 34 indicated other non-Caucasian ethnic origins. Hav- factors, did show a decrease in all types of threats in terms ing been drawn from the Introductory Psychology pool their of intensity and outcomes. This led researchers to postulate ages were on average between 18 and 20 years.In the final that video game play may act as a form of nightmare pro- stages of the study a total of 76 participants reported some tection. Defensive rehearsals that take place through com- form of dream that would allow for content analysis. bat-centric video game play, when done over a long period of time would result in well-learned defensive responses 2.2. Measures (Gackenbach, Ellerman, & Hall, 2011; Gackenbach, Darling- The following questionnaires were administered in the on- ton, Ferguson, & Boyes, 2013). This process is very similar line survey in the order below. to the imagery rehearsal technique for treating nightmares, Pre-screened Questionnaire. We asked the participants which shows how these learned responses can general- three key details as far as pre-screen criterion, dream recall ize to other altered realities, in this case dreams (Krakow & frequency, video game play frequency and gender. Males Zadra, 2006). had to be on the high end of dream recall being at least four A strong support for this thesis was a study conducted times a week. This criteria was used in order to increase by Gackenbach, Ellerman and Hall (2011). Military gamers the likelihood that these participants would have a dream participating in the study evidenced less of some forms of to report after their participation in the study. Video game dream threat in their military dreams. This is evidence of the play frequency was either high or low. Additional criteria for numbing toward violence associated with serious combat- being included were being at least eighteen years of age, centric game play (Barlett, Anderson, & Swing, 2009). Point- being male, not having trauma in the past six months that ing to the work of Luther and colleagues who argue that may lead to mental turmoil. exposure to complex visual-spatial motor tasks up to six Demographic Questions. The following five items were hours after a traumatic event, can reduce later flashbacks, sought to obtain general demographic information; sex, which are often seen in nightmares (Luther, Andrew, Mat- age, education, marital status, and race or ethnicity. Chron- thew, & Alexander, 2015). A replication and extension of bach Alpha’s were computed on all the remaining scales the Gackenbach et al. (2011) study by Gackenbach, Dar- and can be found in Table 1. lington, Ferguson and Boyes (2013) used undergraduate Video Game Play History Questionnaire. The Video participants sing the same inventories they replicated the Game Play History Questionnaire is an 18-item instrument earlier study with men. A recent replication was done try- adapted from Gackenbach in 2006. This was used to further ing to show the nightmare protection effect in another lab refine the video game groups. That is beyond the frequency (Blagrove, Samson, McMurtie & Carter, 2013), did not find question asked at prescreening, in this survey further infor- the nightmare protection effect, however the key piece that mation thought to substantiate gaming groups was includ- they were missing was controlling for emotional reactivity ed. Questions inquired into participants’ life history of play- and history of trauma. ing video games. The types of questions included frequency In the current study we sought to confirm the nightmare of play, length of play, number of games played, age when protection effect by using an experimental manipulation in- the participant began to play, age of peak play, and genres stead of correlational techniques, which has been the meth- preferred at various times in the life span.
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