Friendliness: Sex Differences in East African Dreams.

This article compares the sex differences in East African dreams of three Kenyan tribes in a replication of a previous research on friendliness in dreams of these tribes. The authors remark that because of the salient differences between American and East African cultures, including the presence of sexual segregation and patrifocal social organization in East Africa, no predictions concerning sex differences were made for the present data. Scoring for friendliness was based on whether the source or the object of friendliness was the dreamer, a male character a female character, an animal, or a residual other. This analysis indicated that the dreams of female students yielded a higher incidence of friendliness than did those of male students. Additionally, the female dreamers themselves were more frequently the recipients of friendly acts than were male dreamers, and they more frequently dreamed that other female characters were involved in friendly acts. This general outcome may reflect the strong male bias in social organization and groupings. With much superior social status, male members of the tribes may exhibit and dream of friendliness toward each other more frequently, whereas female members may exhibit and dream of more all-inclusive friendliness.