Thesis, Sources, and Issues...oh my

My topic is about the misunderstandings of attention-deficit disorder.  Considering that I have a mild case of this disorder I have decided I wanted to know more about how and why I think the way I do.  Most of the research I have already found is about children with the condition and having to deal with it in the school environment.  But being a college student, I’m nearing my adult life of living in the real world with a real job in which is a completely different environment than the educational system to have ADD.  So, from that I’ve been able to narrow down my thesis to: Attention-deficit disorder is a misunderstood condition, one that many scientists have narrowed down the cause to, used that information to help teachers know how to better structure their class for their ADD students, and then to help those students when they’ve grown up into adults –and have yet to out grow out of the symptoms– how to adjust to society.

            The majority of my sources have come from journal articles of scientists, doctors, and nurses.  Some discuss the medical prescriptions and the medical definition of ADD, while others examine the disorder in terms of the people affected.  In terms of finding more sources I believe I’ve found a good amount of information for what I want to fill my paper with, but if I was to look for anymore it would be about parents dealing with their children, whether it’s that they get frustrated, don’t have the money for the medication, or don’t understand how to help their child.

            Most of the problems I’ve run into at the moment are finding sources that touch on ADD.  When I was looking for some, the majority of them simply were for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, which although I will touch on because it’s more popular than ADD I’m trying to keep my focus on just ADD.  Another issue with my research is that since most of the sources were written by scientists and doctors and so they use a lot of medical jargon, so I would have to not only find information on ADD but also find information on what the doctors and scientists are talking about when it comes down to specific medical properties such as what is the cognitive system.

Attention Deficit Disorder Cites

1. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=51fc3bf1-c4c0-4e92-9f8b-a169c2e3781d%40sessionmgr113&vid=2&hid=106

This cite gives the rough definition of attention deficit disorder as "the inability to focus or to pay attention."  It then brings up the possible errors with diagnosing a child nowadays because they aren't factoring certain variables such as nutrition and sleep which can both affect the child's concentration.  Then is speaks about the issues with teachers dealing with students with ADD or AD/HD and how they "teach in the middle" which is fine for an average student but a child with ADD or AD/HD is too far from the average that it is difficult for the teacher to change their teaching style to accommodate the child.

2. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=571a9969-f85c-416d-a9b8-2457ff83fc7e%40sessionmgr115&vid=2&hid=106

The article touches on the medication used for ADD and AD/HD.  It begins with the most general form of medication as a simple stimulant, but then brings up less known medications such as non-stimulants, antidepressants, and/or high blood pressure medication.  It includes that these medications are no cure for the disorder, nor do they have the same affect on every participant.

3. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1781512/?tool=pmcentrez

This article addresses people with ADD that are now adults since the majority of children with ADD or AD/HD grow out of the disorder before they're adults.  It then goes into more detail as to how the disorder can be hereditary as well as vary between genders.  He comes to the conclusion that although it is rare for adults to still have symptoms of ADD it is important to treat them so that they're life is much more smooth.

4. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=56bc613f-067e-4cda-bf60-2dffc6ab36f9%40sessionmgr111&vid=1&hid=126&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=23996906

The article brings up the phycological aspects of attention deficit disorder.  Through research the article states that most of the symptoms of ADD result from not having the part of their brain that deals with the cognitive management systems or executive functions is either not fully grown or not "grown" correctly. He then continues on to explain where having ADD becomes a problem in the real world and how one could go about adjusting to it.

5. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2001.tb05780.x/full

This article gives a much more medical analysis of what ADD is.  It makes use of tables to show the different results of people with and without ADD or AD/HD.  Finally the author explains that the main reason there is such thing as ADD and AD/HD is that there is an issue with their cognitive processing which would allow them to remain more focused on what they wanted to focus on.

Research Topics

1.  Is technology modernizing in the wrong direction?  Have you ever sat there hoping to find something to watch on TV when you stumble across an iPad 2 ad.  You watch it, interested, eventually coming to the conclusion that you NEED this product.  A quick trip to you amazon account and the electronic is on its way to your front door.  When you finally receive the product and begin looking through how this product is better than...wait a minute, it plays music, goes onto the web, has fun mind-numbing applications.  Don't you already own a smaller version of this?  But isn't is also a phone?  The present world keeps trying to push forward and improve in technology, but there's a difference between beneficial technology and "gadgets."  And iPad is meant to be a combination of an iPhone and computer, yet it's more like an oversized iPod, but then there's the fuel dilemma.  What if the world used their resources less towards frivolous iPad and more towards discovering replacements for fuel.

2.  There has been a major increase in children being diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).  Most of the reason is that the ability to test children for ADD has become more available to the public.  But even though more people are found to have it it's still misunderstood among the majority.  To generalize, ADD it when the person has a difficulty focusing, causing them to have difficulties test taking or working under pressure - in which happens most during school.  Unfortunately, this causes most affected - specifically students - to falter in class, not for their lack of studying, but more of their lack of inability to reach the knowledge to answer a question because, say, some student was tapping their pencil too loud throughout the test.  Why is ADD so misunderstood when the population with it is increasing?

My Decision

Thesis: Cigarettes were always described as the "image of cool" but this image takes it farther by bringing in the idea of becoming more attractive, giving the reader the idea that cigarettes are required not only to be cool but also to get women.

Pictures for my essay

Dominos didn't really think it through

OR

iTunes basic logo

OR

Flavored smoke?  Possibly sexist?

Fake is the New Real

The world today is surrounded by hundreds and thousands of ads, the majority of them appealing to the humans desire for perfection.  But what is considered "perfection"?  In women's eyes it's the idea of having that hourglass shape, of having that flat stomach, of having their face to be clean of blemishes and their skin tone even.  But what was it that made these features become the idea of perfection?

This Vogue cover shows one example of what is considered the women's "perfect body."  And even the way the artist relates the clothing on the model helps make the body shape more enticing.  It forces the woman's mind to jump to conclusions "if she looks like this, then this will happen."  It's a terrible chain reaction that companies today have just started to realize.

This more recent Vogue cover gives an example of how companies are coming to the realization that it's starting to occur to women that they don't appreciate having a "perfect body" image forced upon themselves.  So now most magazines and overall ads try to make it more apparent that they picked that model because they believed they best fit the article, rather than best fitting the "perfect" image.

Although companies are still striving to show that they are "different" and "more accepting" it is obvious that the image is still important.  And it's not just the companies fault, it's sometimes the readers fault too. They pick up a magazine with the headline "How to lose weight easy" because they're trying to achieve the advertised shape.

So, it's a catch-22; people want companies to start portraying "real people" then again they want to have the "perfect image" too, which simply supplies the company with the need to keep producing certain articles and ads.  The only possible way for society and ads to reach an equilibrium would have to be that either of the two falls for one; yet no one really wants a 300 pound model on their magazine cover.