A drive
An appetite for reward and novelty, known as sensation seeking, is biologically based. On its own, it is neither good nor bad.
Understanding people at work
Chris J. Jackson
Professor of Business Psychology
UNSW Business School, Sydney
Personality is potential. Learning decides what it becomes.
I study how personality, motivation and learning combine to shape behaviour at work: why the same appetite for reward and novelty can fuel performance, leadership and enterprise in one person, and risky or counterproductive behaviour in another.
“Saints or sinners? It depends on what we learn.”
About
Who I am
I am Professor of Business Psychology at UNSW Business School, a former Head of the School of Management, and a registered psychologist. My research examines how biologically based personality traits are shaped by learning and cognition into functional or dysfunctional outcomes at work. I developed the hybrid model of learning in personality and the Jackson-5 scales of revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory.
Before academia I worked as an occupational psychologist, and I have been involved in several business start-ups. I lead UNSW's innovation and entrepreneurship research group.
Read my full profile- President, International Society for the Study of Individual Differences
- Associate editor, Journal of Research in Personality
- 120+
- Journal articles
- 9,000+
- Citations
- 52
- h-index
- 3
- ARC grants
- AU$1M+
- Research funding
- 20+
- PhD completions
Google Scholar, as at 1 October 2026
Featured research
The same drive can build a career or derail one.
Sensation seeking, an appetite for reward and novelty, is neither good nor bad. My hybrid model of learning in personality shows how learning redirects it: towards performance, leadership and enterprise, or, left unchecked, towards risk and deviance. Mavericks show both sides.
Read about the hybrid modelThe idea, in three steps
Redirection
Learning and cognition channel the drive through mastery goals, deep learning, emotional intelligence and conscientiousness.
Functional outcomes
Performance, leadership and enterprise.
Dysfunctional outcomes
Risk, deviance and counterproductive behaviour.
The hybrid model of learning in personality (Jackson, 2005; O'Connor & Jackson, 2008). More on the model
Research themes
A connected view of human behaviour
Five core themes carry the story; four further areas hold the breadth of the work. Together they build a fuller understanding of how people think, behave and perform at work.
- Personality & motivation How people differ in reacting to reward and threat, and how to measure it.
- Learning & the hybrid model How learning and cognition redirect a basic drive into functional or dysfunctional behaviour.
- Leadership What makes leaders motivate or harm, past and present.
- Divergence Why some people break from the group, for better or for worse.
- Evidence & innovation How managers use evidence, set goals and run innovation.
Also: psychometrics and measurement, laterality and biological bases, history and big questions, wellbeing and applied collaborations.
From individual differences to organisational performance.
Interested in a PhD?“Better decisions, healthier workplaces and more effective leadership.”