Personality change and personality as predictor of change in psychotherapy: A longitudinal study in a community mental health clinic

Research suggests that personality may change due to important life events, such as psychotherapy, and that personality and attitudes may predict treatment progress. Longitudinal data in a community mental health clinic showed positive changes in Emotional Stability, Hope, Gratitude, and Motivation during the course of psychotherapy. The static approach relating baseline personality and attitudes to treatment progress did not yield fruitful results. The dynamic approach was more effective, in which we treated personality and attitudes as malleable and used changes in these variables as predictors of progress. Treatment progress correlated with an increase in Emotional Stability. Positive changes in general life attitudes (Hope, Gratitude, Quality of Life) more so than therapy-specific attitudes (Motivation, Working Alliance) predicted symptom reduction.