ANSWERS
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - correct answer-✅- Two critical descriptions: 1) has to be
persistent 2) and age inappropriate - symptoms include: inattention,hyperactivity, and/or impulsively
Note: remember not all three classes of symptoms are necessary for an ADHD diagnosis.
Definition of ADHD - correct answer-✅3 Distinct Symptoms of ADHD
i) hyperactivity:
ii) Inattention and Distractibility:
iii) impulsivity
i) Hyperactivity - correct answer-✅- fidgety behavior
- motion that has no purpose,
- tapping foot, wiggling.
- Often not conscious of motion.
ii) Inattention and Distractibility: - correct answer-✅- fail to process details or maintain sustained
attention
- difficulty organizing tasks; hard time figuring out what to do first, or where to go first.
- distractibility: difficulty ignoring non-revelent stimuli (visual, auditory, and/or internal)
Three components:
1) engagement
2) Sustainment: deficit in sustained attention related to ADHD, active processing, maintain attentional
focus.
3) Disengaged: (much more common in elderly people) Shift attention
iii) impulsivity - correct answer-✅to resist responding the immediate action difficult resist/control.
Measuring Impulsivity - correct answer-✅Example: Marshmallow Test - Mischel 1974.
- child comes in room, sits them down, put down a jumbo marshmallow in front of them.
- give them the option of eating right now, or if they wait a min they will get 2 marshmallows to eat.
- test was developed to look at early symptoms of ADHD
- also looks at the development of self impulse control.
Follow-up study: Marie Eigsti et al. (2008)
- if the children ate the marshmallow within the first 30 seconds, it was predicted they had ADHD; but
just because they didn't eat the marshmallow, does not mean they do not have ADHD
Development Tasks and Challenges: Attention & Self- Control - correct answer-✅Age related
improvements in these sills
Pre-school: we tend to see improvements (an increase) in inhibition and a decrease in
impulsivity/distractibility. Greater sustained attention
Elementary: see improvements in playfulness, including delay of gratification strategies, self control.
Two Factor Model ADHD - correct answer-✅1) Inattention
2) Hyperactivity/Impulsivity
- in children we have to see 6 or more symptoms over a span of 6 months
ONLY DIFFERENCE
in DSM V, need 5 or more symptoms to be diagnosed as an adult with ADHD
Two Factory Model ADHD - Inattentive/Distractible - correct answer-✅Deficits in: Sustained attention.
auditory/visual distractibility (eg: something shiny), drifting (daydreaming, an inability to be distracted)