Now entering your Adderall state

The impact of study drugs on sense of self and authenticity of work

Setting a goal, planning the steps to accomplish it, managing time, working hard until completion. These are general steps for  menial tasks or major assignments in school and work. An ability to focus is an absolute necessity for everyone at some point in daily life.

If there were a way to make focusing, and therefore, achieving a goal, in school or at work easier, would this assistance, which might be invisible to those evaluating it, devalue the work? Would it change a student’s experience of completing an assignment or task? Should it change what credit they receive? Would it change how they perceive themselves?

These are some of the many questions confronting students using cognitive enhancement drugs.

Here’s what they had to say:

If you take a study drug, do you cease to be you, when you do? Is the work you did under the influence of a study drug still yours?

Bioethicists have argued you don’t stop “being you” by drinking a cup of coffee or sipping a glass of wine. But students agreed, these drugs did change their personality.

Self-regulation plays a vital role in deciding how and when to use study
drugs, and when to stop. The decision comes down to a kind of cost-benefit analysis – there’s a risk and a
reward, and most students interviewed wanted the option to negotiate that choice, themselves.

 

ETHICAL DILEMMAS:   “everyone here is an overachiever.” | health risks vs. potential benefits | an unfair advantage? | now entering your Adderall state
THE SUPPLY CHAIN:  supply&demand | a balancing act | preventive tweets

 

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