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The Impact of Derived Self-Evaluations of Causal Efficacy Upon the Behaviors of Inattention and Impulsivity

<p> Individuals that struggle with inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity experience difficulties in several life domains including struggles in academia (Biederman, Monuteaux et al., 2004), interpersonal relationships (e.g., Friedman et al., 2003), marital satisfaction (e.g., Eakin et al., 2004), and occupational performance (e.g., Barkley et al., 2008). In spite of a history of academic and social failures, many individuals with ADHD maintain a self-protective bias in which they maintain high self-evaluations of causal efficacy (Owens et al., 2007). This may contribute to greater levels of inattention, impulsivity, and resulting dysfunction, as self-evaluation is rule-governed rather than a result of self-awareness and discrimination. This study aimed to examine how derived causal efficacy might impact inattention and impulsivity. Participants completed a series of Go/NoGo tasks with and without contextual cues that had derived causal efficacy functions through their relations with discriminative stimuli for high or low rates of responding. The impact of derived causal efficacy was then examined in terms of errors of omission (inattention) and errors of commission (impulsivity). Implications for behavioral interventions for ADHD were discussed.</p>

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:10163308
Date01 December 2016
CreatorsRamos, Benjamin M.
PublisherUniversity of Louisiana at Lafayette
Source SetsProQuest.com
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typethesis

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