Positive personality traits as predictors of psychotherapy progress

Abstract

The objectives of this paper were to study if the traits of the Positive Personality Model (PPM; de la Iglesia and Castro Solano, in Front Psychol 9:2025, 2018) were stable throughout time, if patients perceived change in psychotherapy process, and if positive traits at the beginning of the treatment (Time 1) predicted psychotherapy progress after 3 (Time 2) and 6 (Time 3) months of psychological treatment. The sample was composed of 38 subjects, with a mean age of 38.82 (SD = 12.76; 63.2% female; 36.8% male), who had just initiated psychotherapy treatment (Time 1). Results of a repeated measures ANOVA indicated that there were no statistically significant differences in the positive traits within the three moments that were measured. On the contrary, the level of perceived (lack of) psychotherapy progress diminished significantly in each assessment. Since the measure is reversed, this indicates an increment in the self-perception of the patients regarding the progress in psychotherapy. Moreover, a model in which the positive traits in Time 1 were predictors of psychotherapy progress in Time 2 and in Time 3 resulted statistically significant. Of all the positive traits, sprightliness was the only significant predictor. It is concluded that positive traits are characterized by stability throughout time and that, once again, sprightliness stands out as the main predictor of desirable outcomes.