Procedure
psychotic disorder, psychosis
RECRUITMENT
The study used various recruitment methods, including flyers and social media, as well as a mailing list of former study participants from the Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE). Inclusion criteria were age > 18 years, self-reported formal diagnosis of a psychotic disorder, sufficient emotional stability, and being able and willing to give informed consent after reading the study information. The study was conducted online and designed as a randomized-controlled within-subject cross-over study.Once participants provided informed consent, they were assessed for cognitive function using the Trail Making Test A and B (TMT A&B), as well as psychological states (mood, optimism, therapy motivation, and perceived stigma), which served as the baseline measures.Participants were then randomly assigned to either a psychopathology assessment block or a character strengths assessment block. After completing the assigned assessment block, participants underwent another round of assessment of the TMT A&B and psychological states. They then completed the respective other assessment block (psychopathology or character strengths), followed by a final assessment of the TMT A&B and psychological states.After that, all participants received a brief character strength intervention, which consisted of personalized feedback on their top-two character strengths, as well as an instruction sheet with easy-to-implement exercises to make use of their character strengths in everyday life.At the end of the study, socio-demographic information, including current or past diagnoses and therapy status, were assessed. To distinguish potential ‘simulators’ from real patients in this online study, a 4-item psychosis lie scale (cutoff: 8 points); [