), 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 institution, 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.
