Changes in playfulness, creativity and honesty as possible outcomes of psychotherapy

Refael Yonatan-Leus*, Gaby Shefler, Orya Tishby

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Objectives: This study comprised an examination of whether clients’ playfulness, creativity, honesty, humor, and happiness changed during psychotherapy. Methods: Sixty-two clients who underwent psychotherapy in a naturalistic setting completed questionnaires at five time points throughout treatment. An HLM analytic approach was applied to account for the hierarchical nature of the data. Results: Mental distress declined during treatment, while playfulness and creativity increased significantly. Honesty decreased significantly in the course of the treatment, while no significant change was found in the level of affiliative humor or the level of happiness. Conclusions: Changes in personality variables that can serve as positive constructs defining mental health, namely playfulness, creativity, and honesty, might be a possible outcome of psychotherapy.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)788-799
Number of pages12
JournalPsychotherapy Research
Volume30
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 17 Aug 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, © 2019 Society for Psychotherapy Research.

Keywords

  • creativity
  • honesty
  • outcome research
  • playfulness
  • psychodynamic/psychoanalytic theory

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Changes in playfulness, creativity and honesty as possible outcomes of psychotherapy'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this