Am I dreaming: The Continuity of Personality

Student: Melissa Millan

Who are you? Are you “you” all the time? This study stands to support the hypothesis that personality is enduring not only across time and situations, but also across intrapsychic environments. Support is drawn for this hypothesis by examining the continuous nature of personality in an intrapsychic environment. The intrapsychic environment chosen is the dream world, and the personality factors include locus of control, field (in)dependence, and need for cognition. An analysis of current literature reflects that individuals who frequently have lucid dreams have internal locus of control, field independence, and score higher in need for cognition in waking life.

These facets of an individual’s personality are reflections of the qualities that are necessary to develop lucid dreaming abilities, suggesting that personality transcends into intrapsychic states of awareness. This study provides some clarity on the opaque nature of human personality; a construct that fascinates every society.