A.D.D: A Sociological Phenomen
Attention Deficit Disorder (A.D.D.), which effects 3-5% of America’s children, mostly being middle class males, is believed to be a neurologically based disorder, most likely with a genetic origin. Symptoms include hyperactivity (fidgeting, excessive running and climbing, and frequently leaving one’s desk during class), impulsivity (blurting out answers in class, interrupting, and losing things often), and inattention (forgetfulness, disorganization and losing things). There is no medical diagnosis for this disorder, but assessment includes parent, child and teacher interviews, a medical exam, and placement on a behavior rating scale and performance tests, and it then usually treated with Ritalin (Armstrong, 1995). If one is to say that A.D.D is a biological or psychological problem, therefore saying that the problem is within the child, then it would need to be diagnosed exclusively with biological or psychological testing. However, since diagnosis is primarily based on subjective values, such as the child’s behavior in social settings, it must be a sociological problem and have social causes. The recent “outbreak” of A.D.D. can only be explained by a breakdown at the micro social level, or of the familial institut
ion, due to pressures at the macro social level, or of capitalism, and can only be solved if family becomes a major priority again, equal to, or more important than work for the parents. Since doctors are unable to diagnose A.D.D. based on a biological condition, such as a genetic disorder, the disorder must lack a biological cause and not biological in nature, and therefore should not be treated by biological means. The closest thing to a biological cause that researchers have discovered is a correlation between A.D.D. and brain scans, implying that children suffering from the disorder have something wrong with their brain. This is not a very convincing cause of the disorder not only because a concrete causation is needed instead of a slight correlation, but also because it does not explain what caused their brain to be that way. One needs to take into consideration that if a child is under a considerable amount of social stress for an extended period of time, they will suffer from biological problems. In short, these symptoms are to neurobehavioral disorders as a fever is to other illnesses. For example, if someone has the flu and you simply apply a cold compress to reduce the fever, you are only masking the problem, not solving it. Instead, you need to find the cause of the fever, for example, the flu, and cure that. Likewise, you can not “cure” A.D.D. by masking the problem and giving the child a pill to make them calm, you need to find the cause, which is within the system, and cure that. When individual needs are competing with the needs of the system, the individual will suffer. A.D.D. is a direct result of how the micro level of our society, or our familial institution, is suffering because of the demands being made on it by the macro level of our society, or our capitalistic society. If we truly want to help our children, we must fight against the pressures of the macro level to become more efficient and materialistic beings. If other nations, such as Sweden, Norway and Denmark are able to have two-job families, and still have time to be involved in their children’s lives, then we most definitely can, too. Parents need to start taking more parental leaves while their children are young, not shy away from the emotional turmoil, which accompanies the formation of deep relationships. The only way to help our children with their struggle which we call A.D.D., is to reduce our societies focus on economic output, and focus more on the family. Being both aquatic and land-inhabiting org
Some topics in this essay:
Samuel Cartwright,
Ritalin Armstrong,
ADD America’s,
Disorder ADD,
Norway Denmark,
educational system,
biological psychological,
fetish commodities,
system individual,
social level,
difficulty adjusting,
difficulty adjusting system,
child adjust educational,
competing system individual,
adjust educational system,
adjusting system,
system society,
paying attention,
biological cause,
system individual suffer,
Join now to see the rest of the essay!
Approximate Word count = 1706
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
Example Essays Home
