And another one down for our school systems...

Written by Peter Gray.  Read the complete article at...  (This is abridged!) The "ADHD Personality": Its Cognitive, Biological, and Evolutionary Foundations Posted: 19 Aug 2010 12:31 PM PDT "Last month I posted an essay linking the dramatic increase in diagnosed ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) to our increasingly restrictive system of schooling (see ADHD and School)." My overriding point was that, because of the increased competitive and standardized nature of schooling, behaviors that in the past would have been regarded as within the range of normal are now considered to be abnormal. At present, in the United States, roughly 12% of boys and 4% of girls have been diagnosed with ADHD. What kind of a society are we if we consider 12% of boys (one out of every eight) to be mentally disordered in this way and in need of strong psychoactive drugs as treatment? Some people who commented on that post objected to my sociological analysis by referring to evidence that the brains of people diagnosed with ADHD are in some ways different from those of other people. To them, the evidence of a brain difference is somehow proof that ADHD is a "medical" or "biological" disorder and that a sociological analysis of it is out of place. But if you give it some thought, you will quickly realize that there is no contradiction at all between biological and sociological analyses of ADHD or any other condition referred to as a disorder. My goal in that essay was to explain the extraordinary increase in rate of ADHD diagnosis that has occurred over the last two or three decades. I don't think that increase is primarily due to a change in brain structures in the general population; I think it is primarily due to a change in social values and especially in the conditions of schooling. Today, as a society, we are far less tolerant of children who don't adapt well to our system of compulsory education than we were in the past, and so we diagnose them and give them drugs. The basic cognitive characteristic of ADHD appears to be high impulsiveness and reduced "executive control." According to the most widely accepted cognitive model of it, the fundamental problem in ADHD is not one of attention so much as one of impulsiveness.[1] By a wide variety of measures, people diagnosed with ADHD are more impulsive, less reflective and controlled, than other people. This impulsiveness is believed to underlie all or most of the distinguishing behavioral characteristics shown by such people. Impulsiveness leads them to be easily distractible, which is why they are seen as inattentive. It also leads them to be impatient and restless, unable to tolerate tedium or to sit still unless something truly grabs and retains their interest, which is why they may be seen as hyperactive. And it leads them to be highly emotionally reactive; they tend to respond immediately, emotionally, overtly, to stressful or otherwise arousing situations. Continuing reading at...