The present research examines three central issues in the context of ADIHD. First, a theory of attribution proposing that parents' causal attributions affect ADIHD children's locus of control is assessed. Second, ADIHD children's locus of control is linked to their psychological profiles. Finally, ADIHD is looked at from a cross-cultural perspective norms, highlighting the significance of parents' knowledge versus ignorance of the disorder. The main population of interest consists of unmedicated and untreated ADIHD children in Greece whose parents had no prior knowledge of the disorder. Initially, the impact of Greek parents' causal attributions about their ADIHD children's academic performance and behaviour on those children's locus of control is examined. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of the attributions made by parents were found to be associated with specific patterns of locus of control beliefs in their children. In-depth measures of the children's psychological profiles were found to be associated with their locus of control, and a detailed discussion compares these results with other research findings linking internalising and extemalising behaviours with biases in locus of control and attributional style. Then the possible implications of knowledge and socio-cultural beliefs are discussed in relation to the findings on two socio-culturally different populations - Greek and British ADIHD children's locus of control. Finally in an attempt to compare attributional differences, the role of locus of control is examined in an experimental test of task persistence and children's self-evaluations before and after a failure experience. It is concluded that socio-cultural norms influence the ways in which parents formulate causal explanations for their children's behaviour, which, in turn, influence the locus of control, the psychological profiles, the task persistence, and the self-evaluations of ADIHD children.

No description available.

No description available.

Most contemporary schizophrenia research indicates that a heritable neurointegrative deficit may be a vulnerability marker for schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Researchers often measure this deficit in terms of impaired attention on a vigilance task, the Continuous Performance Test (CPT). Impaired attention is found not only in floridly psychotic schizophrenics, but also in remitted schizophrenics, children biologically at risk for schizophrenia, and young adults psychometrically identified as at risk for schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Findings from these investigations provide a possible link in the diathesis-stress model of schizophrenia genesis. However, little research attention has been paid to the potential interactive effects that attentional impairments and interpersonal relations may have in determining susceptibility to active schizophrenic symptomatology. In this study, 703 undergraduates completed measures of interpersonal attachment, perceived relations with parents and peers in childhood, positive schizotypy (schizophrenism) and negative schizotypy (anhedonia). Based upon their schizotypy scores, 191 of these participants were selected to complete a version of the CPT that, by degrading visual stimuli and presenting them very briefly, rapidly produces decrements in vigilance. In a staggered random design, CPT participants were assigned to one of three motivational induction conditions designed either to increase intrinsic motivation, decrease intrinsic motivation, or to replicate the standard CPT protocol. Path modelling supported a bidirectional relationship between adult attachment and schizophrenism. For female participants, recalled relations with fathers and childhood peers, but not with mothers, predicted adult attachment: for males, recalled relations with mothers, fathers, and childhood peers all predicted adult attachment. Maternal and paternal relations had no direct relationship to schizophrenism, while childhood peer relations and adult attachment were substantially related to schizophrenism for both sexes. Using signal detection indices and growth curve analysis across six blocks of CPT performance, the motivational induction designed to increase intrinsic motivation was found to attenuate the decrement in vigilance across time, while the motivational induction designed to decrease intrinsic motivation was found to augment the vigilance decrement, compared to the standard CPT protocol. Perceptual sensitivity scores were lower for high schizotypy participants than for low schizotypy participants, such that anhedonic (negative) and schizophrenism (positive) schizotypy interacted to predict the most impaired performance. High schizotypy participants had lowered perceptual sensitivity scores throughout the CPT protocol, but did not show a more rapid decrement in vigilance compared to others. Participants who reported low levels of intrinsic motivation or positive emotion, or who demonstrated diminished persistence in a hand held dynometer task, also had lowered perceptual sensitivity scores. This relationship was most strong for self-reported intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation was unrelated to schizotypy, and there were no interactions between self-reported intrinsic motivation, schizotypy, and the experimental motivational inductions. High levels of motivation appeared to compensate partially for the impaired attentional performance associated with schizotypy. Contrary to expectations, no interactions between interpersonal attachment and attentional performance were predictive of schizotypal tendencies. Results indicate the importance of the experimental setting as an interpersonal occasion that can either support or undermine attentional performance. The substantial relationship between motivation and attentional performance indicates that future CPT research should include measures of motivation, and that schizophrenia-related deficits in attention may be at least partially eliminated by increasing intrinsic motivation. / This thesis was digitized as part of a project begun in 2014 to increase the number of Duke psychology theses available online. The digitization project was spearheaded by Ciara Healy.

No description available.

Through employing a two-faceted approach to the sociological study of Attention Deficit- Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), this thesis seeks to further the study of this mental illness and also to elucidate new methodological directions for the sociology of similar phenomena. Past approaches in the sociology of mental disorder have considerable merit, but may also be limited in the type of analyses they offer. One particular limitation concerns sociological accounts of mental illness that portray the meaning of such illnesses as unified and that this unification results from the collusion of special interests. Sociologists who address mental illnesses as social problems, for example, appear wont to portray such illnesses as social constructions which arise from specific agents of labeling. With regard to ADHD, previous sociological accounts often make a case for the rhetorical and political power of government agencies, medical practitioners, and pharmaceutical companies. Though such agents are certainly influential in shaping public conceptions of ADHD, this thesis demonstrates that ADHD is interpreted in various ways. These assertions are supported through the analysis of two different data sources: 1) textual data; and 2) interview data. The textual data for the first part of the thesis comprises the subject matter for a genealogy of ADHD. Through examining past and contemporary texts that frame this disorder, including medical journal articles, medical manuals, popular writings, and parental guidebooks, the author argues that the historical and current discussions of ADHD are replete with differing interpretations of the causes and treatments for ADHD. These ADHD discourses, as they are seen through written accounts, offer a variety of perspectives towards the disorder, drawing from many opposing schools of thought. Most notable in this regard are psychodynamic and neurological approaches to ADHD. I argue that even though the neurological perspective towards ADHD appears to be the most dominant in diagnosing and treating the disorder, it is far from monolithic. ' The second part of the thesis draws upon interview data from sixty-two respondents associated with cases of ADHD: twenty clinicians, twenty parents, and twenty-two teachers. Each of these groups of respondents were asked questions designed to solicit their subjective experiences with the disorder, including how they perceived ADHD children and their sources of ADHD knowledge. The analysis of such data is placed against the backdrop of the genealogical part of the thesis. Responses from participants are examined as reflecting ADHD discourses. Some respondents, for example, demonstrate a commitment to neurological perspectives towards ADHD, while others gravitate towards psychodynamic or combined understandings of the disorder. Through combining these two data sources, this thesis analyzes ADHD discourses that give rise to conceptions of the disorder and shows how these discourses influence attitudes and actions towards ADHD. By giving less salience to the collusive relationships between government agencies, medical practitioners, and pharmaceutical companies, and by putting more focus on the relationship between the three major groupings directly involved in the ADHD experience—clinicians, teachers, and parents—this thesis furthers the sociological study of ADHD.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: Russell Schachar.

Thesis (Ed. Spec.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-06, Section: A, page: 2323. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-60).

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references.