The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of positive psychotherapy program on depression, self esteem, and hope in patients with major depressive disorders. A non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design was utilized, and the subjects in this study was that 53 people who were diagnosed with major depressive disorders and received psychiatric outpatient treatment in a university hospital located in the city J. The data were collected from July 1 to December 31, 2013. The positive psychotherapy program was reviewed and modified by psychiatric professor and a nursing professor. The program was implemented weekly 8 times during 8 weeks by a researcher and an assistant researcher who was a Mental Health Nurse certificate holder, and each session consisted of 100 minutes. To determine the effect of the positive psychotherapy program, the Questionnaire was conducted before and after implementation of the program in experimental group, consisting of depression, self esteem and hope. The same questionnaire was conducted in the control group as the experimental group after 8 weeks at a pretest was carried out. The collected data on Cronbach''s alph coefficient, real member and percentage were obtained and analyzed by the statistical package SPSS 20.0. Descriptive statistics was utilized to obtain another statistical data on mean, standard deviation. The χ²-test, Fisher''s exact test, t-test were carried out. An Independent t-test were used to verify the effect of the positive psychotherapy program before between and after program was carried out.

The findings of the study were as follows :
1) The patient with depression who participated in the positive psychotherapy program showed a more significant decrease in depression than their counterparts(t=5.81, p<.001).
2) The patient with depression who participated in the positive psychotherapy program showed a more significant increase in self esteem than their counterparts(t=-3.88, p<.001).
3) The patient with depression who participated in the positive psychotherapy program showed a more significant increase in hope than their counterparts (t=4.35, p<.001).

The above mentioned findings illustrated that the positive psychotherapy program was clinically effective in alleviating the depression and boosting their self esteem, and hope. This study may suggest the way for future research on positive psychotherapy program, and it seems that this program can widely be utilized as one of nursing intervention programs for the patients with major depressive disorders

Key Words: positive psychotherapy program, major depressive disorders, depression, self esteem, hope