Even in tough times, a majority of people in this country regard the "American dream" as an achievable goal for themselves. But polling indicates that this entails some sleight of hand as people redefine the terms of that dream.

When a New York Times survey in early 2005 asked respondents to say what the American dream means to them, "financial security/job" tied with "freedom and opportunity" as the top answer, each cited by 20 percent. Now, in new polling released this month by CBS News and the Times, the number picking "financial security/job" -- things of which there is measurably less these days -- has fallen to 13 percent, while the number picking the more nebulous "freedom and opportunity" has climbed to 27 percent.

There's been an even bigger jump in the number of respondents picking the define-it-as-you-will "being successful," from 7 percent then to 18 percent in the new survey (fielded last month). The number picking "having a house/home" has slid, meanwhile, from 13 percent then to 9 percent now. Reflecting the general gloom of the recession, "happiness/peace of mind" has fallen from 19 percent to 6 percent.

When the concept of the American dream is in flux, it's an important development in our society. "The idea of the American dream is deep, deep, deep in our psyche," says Robbie Blinkoff, principal anthropologist and managing partner of Context-Based Research Group, an ethnographic research and consulting firm based in Baltimore. In concert with its sister company, Baltimore ad agency Carton Donofrio Partners, Context conducted ethnographic research in five cities last fall, interviewing and observing consumers in the post-meltdown months of October and November to yield a report titled "Grounding the American Dream: A Cultural Study on the Future of Consumerism in a Changing Economy." In the course of the research, says Blinkoff, the people interviewed often brought up without prompting "the idea that the old American dream is gone" -- meaning the version that focused on relentless acquisition of stuff. What's perhaps more surprising is that, in retrospect, they didn't view this as a sudden development. "People looked in hindsight and saw it had been happening for a long time," he says. "Individualism and greed had killed what the American dream is really about."

That's not to say people think the American dream per se is gone forever. Rather, people are in the process of shifting toward a fresh understanding of it, one that recovers earlier ideas of community and opportunity. "People say it'll be back, but the real one, not the fake one," says Blinkoff. As you'd expect, though, people have yet to fully sort out their new sense of what the American dream means. "It's a rite of passage we're all going through, coming away from our old identity and not quite having our new identity." Blinkoff does insist, though, that the rejection of the acquisition-oriented version of the American dream is "permanent" and not just a temporary artifact of the bad economy. "That doesn't mean you won't see behaviors that look like the old ways. But it won't mean we're the consumers of old, even though on the surface people might say we're slipping."

In this environment, brands will have to be highly cautious about invoking the American dream in their marketing messages. The old identification of the dream with acquisition won't work. At the same time, brands can't just rhapsodize about the deeper joys of life in the post-meltdown era. "You have to be careful about romanticizing a situation that's painful for a lot of people," Blinkoff cautions.

However they define it, 44 percent of the CBS News/New York Times poll's respondents said they have "already reached" the American dream, and another 31 percent believe they will reach it. Twenty percent said they wouldn't get there, with the figure climbing to 26 percent among those with yearly income under $50,000. Contrary to what you'd guess, these numbers are more upbeat than those of the 2005 Times poll, when 32 percent of respondents said they'd already reached the American dream, 38 percent said they would reach it and 27 percent said they wouldn't get there.

If the notion of the "American dream" is conveniently elastic, people likely have a firmer notion of how their standard of living compares with that of their parents at the same age. And despite much talk these days of downward mobility, a majority of respondents feel they're doing better than the previous generation. Thirty-three percent rated their current standard of living as "much better" than that of their parents at the same age, and another 25 percent termed it "somewhat better." One in five said it's worse (13 percent "somewhat," 8 percent "much"), with most of the rest saying it's about the same.

The pattern of response was less positive, though, when respondents were asked to look ahead and predict whether their children will have a better or worse standard of living when they reach the respondents' current age. Fewer than half said they think their kids will be better off (19 percent "much," 24 percent "somewhat"); about one-third expect their offspring to be worse off (25 percent "somewhat," 9 percent "much"). A separate CBS News poll this month found parents of minor children more upbeat on the question of how likely it is "that your children will have better opportunities to succeed financially than you have had." A large majority said this is either "very likely" (30 percent) or "somewhat likely" (48 percent). Just 5 percent said it's "very unlikely," with another 15 percent calling it "somewhat unlikely."

Respondents to this CBS News poll were decidedly less cheery, though, in responding to a question that didn't focus specifically on kids' financial prospects. Asked whether they think "the future of the next generation of Americans will be better, worse or about the same as life today," parents were more likely to say "worse" (41 percent) than "better" (22 percent). If nothing else, this muddle of responses suggests the deep recession has shaken many Americans' faith in the country's long-term trajectory.

Then again, one key tenet of faith in the American dream remains unshaken for a majority of those polled. Seventy-two percent of respondents to last month's CBS News/New York Times survey said they believe it's still possible "to start out poor in this country, work hard, and become rich." That figure is down, but not wildly so, from the 81 percent saying the same back in the halcyon days of June 2007.

And how much income per year would the "typical American family of four" need in order to be considered rich? There's less consensus on this than you might guess. An austere 8 percent of respondents picked a figure under $100,000, and another 18 percent said something in the $100,000-199,999 range would suffice. Twenty-six percent cited a figure in the $200,000-299,999 range, 7 percent in the $300,000-399,999 range and 4 percent in the $400,000-499,999 range. Just 19 percent picked a figure of $500,000 or more, including 7 percent who said it would take at least $1 million a year for a family of four to enter the ranks of the rich.