Desirable Personality and Positive Psychology Characteristics Reduce Mental Health Symptoms at the Beginning of Psychotherapy, but Only Motivation Relates to Change.

We hypothesized that desirable personality and positive psychology characteristics would predict fewer mental health symptoms at the beginning of psychotherapy and greater change during therapy.  Those higher in hope, motivation, gratitude, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability had fewer baseline symptoms. However, motivation is the only characteristic related to symptom change.