Convergence of Approaches in Localizing the Hyperactivity Deficit

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in childhood psychopathology, which has been reflected in an increase in books and journals, and in an enlarged section concerning childhood disorders in the third edition (DSM-III) and the revised third edition (DSM-III-R) of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Although this increase in the volume of interest is encouraging, the consideration of childhood psychopathology should be based on sound models of human behavior (Quay, 1988). In order to place childhood diagnostics on an experimental footing, the ideal would be to generate a model from the existing reliable research both on childhood dysfunction and on normal human functioning. It would be inadequate, merely to seize an impressive model that was developed for normal functioning and that has no conceptual coverage of abnormal functioning.