Daydreaming, Current Concerns and Personality

Abstract

The study evaluated the impact of personality traits and current concerns as determinants of the content of daydreams. Subjects completed thirteen scales of the Personality Research Form, a current concern list, and kept a log of their daydreams for two weeks. Each daydream was rated on a semantic differential type scale. The relationship between daydreaming and personality was evaluated with canonical correlations and none were significant. The themes of the daydream were, however, related to the current concerns. A total of 65.4 percent of the daydreams reflected subject's current concerns. More than half of the daydreams focused on the five current concerns. In this study, current concerns were found to be consistent with the themes represented in subject's daydreams while personality traits were independent of the meaning attributed to the day dreams.