An old saying says: "If you give a small boy a hammer, it will turn out that everything he runs into needs pounding." Using the example of ADHD, explain how this quote relates to the dangers of overdiagnosis
What will be an ideal response?
Answer: A good answer will include the following key points.
? A comparable saying is, if you give mental health professionals a diagnostic label, it will turn out that everyone they run into has the symptoms of the new disorder.
? ADHD is diagnosed 10 times more frequently in America than in Europe.
? Critics argue that normal boy behavior is being turned into a psychological problem.
? A longitudinal study of more than a hundred 4- to 6-year-olds found that the number of children who met the criteria for ADHD declined as the children got older. Those who truly had the disordered remained highly impulsive and unable to concentrate, but there were many others who matured and no longer had the disorder.
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One thing that animals have not demonstrated the ability to do with language that humans can is use language to describe itself. This use is called _____
a) reflexiveness. b) specialization. c) prevarication. d) duality of patterning sounds, which is used to produce an infinite number of unique utterances.
When a scientist chooses a paradigm to understand psychopathology, it
a) has little effect on clinical practice. b) leads to an overly narrow perspective. c) is generally too narrow in focus. d) specifies which problems they will investigate and how they will go about investigating them.