Sensitivity and predictive value of occupational and physical therapy assessments in the functional evaluation of patients with suspected normal pressure hydrocephalus.

Objective: To examine effectiveness of standardized occupational therapy and physical therapy assessments in detecting functional changes and predicting clinical improvement in patients with suspected normal pressure hydrocephalus undergoing cerebrospinal fluid drainage.

Design: Cohort study.

Patients: Eighty-seven patients admitted to an inpatient neurology unit for elective cerebrospinal fluid drainage for suspected normal pressure hydrocephalus.

Defensive pessimism, self-esteem instability, and goal strivings.

Defensive pessimism (Norem & Cantor, 1986a) is conceived as an adaptive motivational strategy employed in academic contexts. The present research investigates some potentially deleterious correlates of the defensively pessimistic strategy. We examined the hypothesis that defensive pessimists would have a relatively high ratio of negative-to-positive academically relevant self-thoughts, and these accessible thoughts would be related to high self-esteem instability.