Psychology talk covers neurodiversity and experiences of living with ADHD

A recent talk by OU Professor Paul Stenner, Co-Director of the Open Psychology Research Centre (OPRC) describes the neurodiversity movement as providing powerful new ways of understanding and improving the lives of many people.

The 30-minute talk, ‘Neurodiversity, ADHD and Identity – an introduction to some qualitative research’ was based on Paul’s research with Dr Alison Davies and Professor Lindsay O’Dell. Paul describes how a number of the women this research team interviewed came to recognise the extent to which their lives had been influenced by ADHD following the diagnosis of their children, saying:

“Learning from these women allows new insights into the development over the past decade or so of some key principles of the neurodiversity movement. With roots in the activism of autistic people, the notion of neurodiversity is part of a social movement that mobilises around the value of neurological difference.”

Paul addresses some of the ways in which recognition of neurodivergence, in a world created for the neurotypical, can open new paths and possibilities within people’s lives, and how the team are currently working on a new paper on how ADHD shapes relationships.

Watch the talk via YouTube

Find out more

The paper on which the talk is based can be accessed here: Adult women and ADHD: On the temporal dimensions of ADHD identities - Stenner - 2019 - Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour - Wiley Online Library.

Paul’s latest book was published this year by Routledge and was co-authored with Historian of Psychology Graham Richards. It is called Putting Psychology in its Place: Critical Historical Perspectives (4^th Edition) Putting Psychology in its Place | Critical Historical Perspectives | G (taylorfrancis.com)