No abstract

The role of personality trait variation in psychopathology and its influence on the outcome of psychotherapy is a burgeoning field. However, thus far most findings were based on controlled clinical trials that may only poorly represent real-world clinical settings due to highly selective samples mostly restricted to patients with major depression undergoing antidepressive medication. Focusing on personality and psychopathology in a representative naturalistic sample of psychotherapy patients is therefore worthwhile. Moreover, up to date hardly any confirmatory research has been conducted in this field. Strictly confirmatory research implies two major requirements: firstly, specific hypotheses, including expected effect sizes and statistical approaches to data analysis, must be detailed prior to inspection of the data, and secondly, corresponding protocols have to be published online and freely available. Here, we introduce a longitudinal naturalistic study aimed at examining, firstly, the prospective impact of baseline personality traits on the outcome of psychotherapy over a 6-month observation period; secondly, the stability and change in personality traits over time; thirdly, the association between longitudinal change in psychopathology and personality; fourthly, the agreement between self-reports and informant rating of personality; and fifthly, the predictive validity of personality self-reports compared to corresponding informant ratings. For it, we comprehensively state a priori hypotheses, predict the expected effect sizes and detail the statistical analyses that we intend to conduct to test these predictions. Such a stringent confirmatory design increases the transparency and objectivity of psychopathological research, which is necessary to reduce the rate of false-positive findings and to increase the yield of scientific research.

Previous studies have shown that specific personality dimensions, -e.g., the Big Five-, consistently intercorrelate, such that they form a general factor of personality (GFP). It has been hypothesized that the GFP reflects social effectiveness. Similarly, in the clinical domain, overlap between various psychopathological symptoms has also been reported, leading to a general factor of Psychopathology, or p factor. The aim of this study was to test the overlap between the higher-order factors in personality and psychopathology, and how they relate to daily life functioning and communication style. We tested a sample of 165 outpatients of a psychological therapy institute, using a multi-source approach that included self-reports and other ratings. The outpatients’ self-reports of personality, general psychological problems, and interpersonal problems were available. Psychotherapists rated the outpatients’ functioning in daily life with the well-known Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scale. A spouse or friend also rated the impact of the patient’s communication/social behavior. Patients with lower GFP scores and higher scores on general psychopathology, displayed more distress and daily functioning deficits (i.e., lower GAF scores) and, in terms of communication styles, were also rated as being less dominant, less in control socially, and more submissive and aggressive. We proposed that part of the overlap between the general factors (GFP, psychopathology factors) may relate to a lower general life functioning and less social effectiveness.

There is a lack of prospective studies that test pre-specified hypotheses on the role of personality traits in outpatient psychotherapy. A total of 47 patients with a broad range of psychopathological syndromes were enrolled in a prospective 6month observational study conducted in Zurich, Switzerland. We found evidence for remarkably high differential stability in all Big Five personality traits during the first 6 months of psychotherapy. Mean-level stability was very high in agreeableness and conscientiousness, while modest changes were observed in neuroticism, extraversion and openness. Baseline scores in neuroticism and conscientiousness at the beginning of therapy predicted modest change in self-reported severity of psychopathology over 6 months, but no effect was found in association with therapist-rated functional deficits. We conclude that personality trait levels may change slightly over the course of 6 months of psychotherapy and that both neuroticism and conscientiousness may have weak associations with the self-perceived improvement in psychopathology.

3,5-16,6% of couples worldwide with childwish suffer from infertility, and about 20% thereof show clinically relevant psychological symptoms. Until now it remained unclear, up to which extent motivational factors are associated with psychological distress when suffering from infertility. The goal of this study was to assess individual motivational factors in a sample of infertile people, and to explore their effect on psychological distress. Additionally, the role of couple relationship quality as a dyadic predictor was to be examined. We assessed psychological distress, specificity of motivational goals and their achievement, and couple relationship quality in a sample of 123 infertile subjects by online survey. About half of the subjects indicated significant levels of psychological distress. Compared to psychopathologically distressed samples (without explicit infertility problems), infertile subjects specified less approach motivation. Furthermore, low levels of approach motivation were associated with low levels of distress. This applied specifically to the need for control and self-worth. Motivational factors explained 30% of variance in distress, whereas couple relationship quality, specifically the prevalence of arguing, explained merely 4%. These findings show that infertility is associated with distinct motivational patterns, and that these may be suitable to predict psychological distress.