Adult Male Daydreaming across the Life Span: A Replication, Further Analyses, and Tentative Norms Based upon Retrospective Reports

Abstract

Using the Imaginal Processes Inventory, aspects of daydreaming and related mental activity were examined in a replication sample of males aged seventeen to ninety-one years. The characteristics of daydreaming obtained in an original sample were obtained in the replication sample thus supporting the outcomes reported earlier. Combining the original and replication sample allowed for some finer grained analyses and provided some tentative norms for the populations sampled. Some of the more salient outcomes were that with old age daydreaming does not increase or primarily focus on the past. Furthermore, at any age daydreaming does not concentrate on the weird, outlandish, and improbable. Factor analysis revealed a “Neurotic-Anxious Absorption in Daydreaming” factor inversely related to age. “Obsessional-Emotional Daydreaming,” “Personal Acceptance-Utilization of Daydreaming,” and “Imaginal-Emotional Intensity of Daydreaming” factors were also obtained and were unrelated to age.