Exploring the Reservoirs of Drivers and Blockers (Conscious and Unconscious): Other Personality Traits and Characteristics

In this chapter, we delve into further aspects of the conscious and unconscious related to personality traits. This is because beyond the “Big Five”, there are a number of other personality traits, dispositional variables and characteristics such as self-esteem, locus of control, self-efficacy, positive and negative affectivity, risk aversion and tolerance for ambiguity that are associated with change and can act as drivers and blockers. We review literature on self-esteem to illustrate how it can act as a motivational force shaping an individual’s behavior as well as make individuals see change as a threat, evoking resistance behaviors. We discuss how locus of control influences people’s psychological response to change with more internal locus of control enabling people to better manage change. We look at the role of self-efficacy as well as positive and negative affectivity and argue that different levels of these can make people optimistic or pessimistic about their commitment to change. This is followed by a discussion on risk-aversion and tolerance for ambiguity which influence how people handle challenging, ambiguous or dynamic situations. We highlight some other areas such as behavioral patterns and life experiences where future research about drivers and blockers appears important.