Date

12-19-2024

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Education (PhD)

Chair

Constance Pearson

Keywords

Phenomenological, ADD, ADHD, attention-deficit, achievement

Disciplines

Education | Educational Psychology

Abstract

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenology was to discover how adults diagnosed with attention-deficit (ADD) or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), at different ages, view their experiences, and how the ages of diagnoses affected their view of educational achievement and occupational success. A qualitative research design was used to collect data about the experiences of adults who were diagnosed at different ages. Guiding this study were two educational theories: Bandura’s social-cognitive theory, which promotes self-efficacy, and self-determination theory (SDT) (Ryan & Deci, 2020), which proposes that all individuals innately pursue self-optimization. A hermeneutic approach was chosen to interpret the analysis of data. Ten adults who had been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD at different ages volunteered to respond to three types of data collection: interviews, surveys/questionnaires, and journal prompts. Triangulation of those methods sought to answer the central research question: What is the collective experience of adults who were diagnosed with ADD/ADHD in or before elementary school (5th grade) or after elementary school? Through analysis of data using van Manen’s (2016) contextual significance of meaning, themes emerged from the analysis: varied experiences of interventions, influences which shape identity, motivational exceptionality, and variations in achievement perspectives. The study found high motivation of individuals with ADD/ADHD towards their specific interests and high achievement in both earlier and later diagnosed adults with ADD/ADHD.

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