Two votes for Kamijou already... Let Sayaka's smile from above be your reward, guys.
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If we're talking about motivations, then yes, it does. Think about Homura, or Yuma from the Oriko manga. The motivations behind their actions are so clear you don't even have to think to understand their behavior.
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Good examples, but different IMHO. What we try to dig up here is the motvation behind Madoka's personality, right? Well, it might seem that Urobuchi gives us plenty of it for the other characters... except that it's not the motivation behind their personalities, but rather the CHANGE they underwent. Homura wasn't a pragmatic cold badass from the start. Kyouko is implied to have been as idealistic as Sayaka. Yuma might have easily been your average sweet little girl before her family started cracking up and her mother took to lashing out at her horribly. In all of these cases, we are not given the motivation behind the original personalities, but the altered ones, and it always takes some significant (down to shocking) events to cause that change.
In Madoka's case, we may debate about her kind-heartedness and will to help others, and complain about the lack of motivation for that as long as we wish. But her self-sacrificing traits don't seem innate, if you come to think of it. They are partly based upon her original personality (which becomes part of motivation itself here) plus the events she undergoes - the acquisition of magical powers , feeling like a hero that IS useful to the world, losing her friends in battle, finding out the truth behind the system... In timeline 5, Madoka clearly wasn't self-sacrificiing from the start, and that's presumably why she apologises tearfully to Mami in episode 4 (she's too shocked and scared to become a magical girl, even knowing that her wish might be able to bring Mami back). Then, as her best friend becomes involved and squashed under the pressure of the system, she becomes desperate to help her. And by the episode 12, having learnt enough the HARD way and realising that people around her are in danger and the girl who have been trying to protect her is going to perish inevitably... That pretty much does it. There were many talks about the reasons behind Madoka's self-denial, but it seems to me it's not in her character - that's in the CHANGE she undergoes due to the events of the show.
And original personalities... good luck guessing the motivation behind them. Why is Madoka so sweet? Why is Sayaka so energetic yet shy around the guy she likes (such combo is common, but NOT obligatory)? Why is Kamijou so oblivious? And so on and so forth.