Sustaining fantasies, daydreams, and psychopathology

This study compared daydreaming to fantasies used for self-comfort at times of stress in order to assess the degree of overlap in content between the two types of fantasy and to determine what types of daydreams are associated with indices of psychopathology. One hundred nineteen college undergraduates completed the Sustaining Fantasy Questionnaire (Zelin et al., 1983) and the Imaginal Processes Inventory (Singer & Antrobus, 1972), along with five general measures of maladjustment, which reflect ideational deviance, low or unstable self-concept, and reliance upon regressive defenses. The results supported the hypotheses of considerable overlap in content and of parallels between the two types of fantasy. Three IPI scales--Fear Reaction, Bizarre, and Hostile--were observed to be particularly linked to psychopathology.