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ADHD is one of the most prevalent neurodevelopmental disorders and represents one extreme of self-regulation within any population. However, no theory of ADHD yet explains the behavioural processes behind its common symptoms, holistically accounts for how contextual changes impact beahviour, or explains cases where people with ADHD perform better than their neurotypical peers. Instead, existing theories overemphasise ADHD’s neurological differences and arguably encourage pharmaceutical treatment of them. In this paper, we extend current process theories of self-regulation to clinical self-regulation issues within ADHD: ADHD behaviour is characterised as faster changes in goal-directed behaviour across tasks, and dependent on an individual’s context. We use this model to explain basic and complex ADHD symptoms, differentiate ADHD from a different process related to sluggish cognitive tempo, and suggest practical, non-pharmaceutical alternatives to manage ADHD symptoms Future research is needed to test the generalisability of goal-directed behaviour processes from neurotypical to ADHD populations across different contexts.
Horne et al. (Tue,) studied this question.