1) Biological Determinism
a) One danger of believing that ADHD is biologically deterministic is that stimulant medication becomes more “easily justified and emphasized, while [other intervention methods] become less valued” (Diller, 1996, p.309). This means that whenever there is a patient that is diagnosed with ADHD, the doctor will immediately turn to prescription medication to treat the disorder. This can cause problems for the patient because the medication may not be treating the actual cause of the disorder, in which other treatments would be able to. Also, this emphasis of taking stimulant medication is affected by mass media that allows people to interpret their information however they want. In this case, mass media claims that ADHD …show more content…
For example, in terms of hyperactivity and inattentiveness brain activity is monitored and shows high levels of dopamine, but this is not only because of genetic factors. It is true that there are biochemical influences that can cause concerns for children that may have ADHD, but this can be caused by situations that can cause emotional or physical stress. According to Rogers H. Wright (2005), “distractibility (attention deficient) is a frequent concomitant of excess fatigue, particularly with children under five years of age, and can even be seen in adults if fatigue levels are extreme or if stress is prolonged” (p. 262), which shows that in these situations there are no genetic factors that cause distractibility but rather stress and fatigue. Similar cases show that there is a limit for biological determinism in order to justify hyperactive and inattentive behavior, so in order to diagnose ADHD both biological and environmental influences need to be considered. Biological determinism affecting free will and decision-making doesn’t really have limits, since for the most part everything is linked to how the brain functions. For example, decision-making comes from the use of the frontal lobe that is responsible for planning out movements and actions that can also relate to how a person with ADHD uses their free will. Since …show more content…
The person should show symptoms in two or more settings because the environment is different in every setting that can also affect how the child or adult behaves in a certain situation. Having to show symptoms across all settings would mean that only a small amount of people might be able to display signs of ADHD and actually be diagnosed with the disorder. However, after the lessening of the criteria, people that do show maladaptive behavior in all settings would probably be considered to have severe ADHD. Also, showing symptoms in all settings would mean that others who may show signs of maladaptive behavior in a few settings and actually have ADHD would not be properly diagnosed. According to Larry S. Goldman et al. (1998), in order to make an appropriate diagnosis, “the clinician must be familiar with normal development and behavior, gather information from several sources to evaluate the child’s symptoms in different settings, and construct an appropriate differential diagnosis for the presenting complaints” (p. 316), which is very in depth and can help rule out children that are perceived to have ADHD and actually do not. This ties into how people still question the validity of the disorder after this change in diagnosis criteria, especially since they believe that people can have random outbursts of hyperactivity or forgetfulness and not have ADHD, which is true unless it is
a) One danger of believing that ADHD is biologically deterministic is that stimulant medication becomes more “easily justified and emphasized, while [other intervention methods] become less valued” (Diller, 1996, p.309). This means that whenever there is a patient that is diagnosed with ADHD, the doctor will immediately turn to prescription medication to treat the disorder. This can cause problems for the patient because the medication may not be treating the actual cause of the disorder, in which other treatments would be able to. Also, this emphasis of taking stimulant medication is affected by mass media that allows people to interpret their information however they want. In this case, mass media claims that ADHD …show more content…
For example, in terms of hyperactivity and inattentiveness brain activity is monitored and shows high levels of dopamine, but this is not only because of genetic factors. It is true that there are biochemical influences that can cause concerns for children that may have ADHD, but this can be caused by situations that can cause emotional or physical stress. According to Rogers H. Wright (2005), “distractibility (attention deficient) is a frequent concomitant of excess fatigue, particularly with children under five years of age, and can even be seen in adults if fatigue levels are extreme or if stress is prolonged” (p. 262), which shows that in these situations there are no genetic factors that cause distractibility but rather stress and fatigue. Similar cases show that there is a limit for biological determinism in order to justify hyperactive and inattentive behavior, so in order to diagnose ADHD both biological and environmental influences need to be considered. Biological determinism affecting free will and decision-making doesn’t really have limits, since for the most part everything is linked to how the brain functions. For example, decision-making comes from the use of the frontal lobe that is responsible for planning out movements and actions that can also relate to how a person with ADHD uses their free will. Since …show more content…
The person should show symptoms in two or more settings because the environment is different in every setting that can also affect how the child or adult behaves in a certain situation. Having to show symptoms across all settings would mean that only a small amount of people might be able to display signs of ADHD and actually be diagnosed with the disorder. However, after the lessening of the criteria, people that do show maladaptive behavior in all settings would probably be considered to have severe ADHD. Also, showing symptoms in all settings would mean that others who may show signs of maladaptive behavior in a few settings and actually have ADHD would not be properly diagnosed. According to Larry S. Goldman et al. (1998), in order to make an appropriate diagnosis, “the clinician must be familiar with normal development and behavior, gather information from several sources to evaluate the child’s symptoms in different settings, and construct an appropriate differential diagnosis for the presenting complaints” (p. 316), which is very in depth and can help rule out children that are perceived to have ADHD and actually do not. This ties into how people still question the validity of the disorder after this change in diagnosis criteria, especially since they believe that people can have random outbursts of hyperactivity or forgetfulness and not have ADHD, which is true unless it is