Chaos Theory - A new way of looking at human behavior that
has emerged from the disciplines of economics, mathematics, biology, and
physics. It moves us away from a
reductionist view of human behavior to a view that emphasizes wholeness and
change.
Concept of attraction by Pryor and Bright – a process used
by individuals to organize a coherent self and then maintain and sustain it
when change occurs. Subdivided into four
types of attractors, used to describe different patterns of behavior used to
respond to changing life challenges.
1.
Point attractor – focus on choosing the best
occupation based on a match between their personalities, abilities, and interests. They may discount the role of chance and
uncertainty in their lives.
2.
Pendulum attractor – describes swings in
behavior. Likely to engage in
dichotomous either-or thinking and may hold ridged beliefs.
3.
Torus attractor – routine, habitual, and
predictable thinking and behavior. Try
to control their lives by organizing and classifying people and things and like
consistency and routine.
4.
Strange attractor – Open systems thinking
recognizes the possibility of change being non-linear in the sense that a small
difference may result in every major reconfiguration of the system. Promotes
the ability for individuals to adopt and grow.
Change is not seen as the opposite of order but as part of one’s
existence.
Chaos Theory emphasizes the importance of integrating
spirituality into our conceptualization of career development. Bloch, Pryor and
Bright describe five dimensions of spirituality and career development.
1.
Connection – focuses on how we are
interconnected with the human community, the world, and the universe.
2.
Purpose – focus on humans’ sense of meaning,
purpose and significance.
3.
Transcendence – emphasis on the idea that there
is a greater power beyond our understanding.
4.
Harmony – attention to how everything fits
together into an intelligible whole.
5.
Calling – the idea that individuals often
perceive that what they are doing with their lives is the result of being
called.
Chaos Theory and Shiftwork – change can occur gradually or
very quickly. The effect is to reconfigure the system. Pryor and Bright
described 11 phase shifts career counselors need to pay attention to:
1.
From Prediction to Prediction and Pattern Making
2.
From Plans to Plans and Planning
3.
From Narrowing Down to Being Focused on Openness
4.
From Control to Controlled Flexibility
5.
From Risk as Failure to Risk as Endeavor
6.
From Probabilities to Probably Possibilities
7.
From Goals, Roles and Routines to Meaning,
Mattering and Black Swans
8.
From Informing to Informing and Transforming
9.
From Normative Thinking to Normative and
Scalable Thinking
10.
From Knowing in Advance to Living with Emergence
11.
From Trust as Control to Trust as Faith
Bright and Pryor suggested that career counselors use the
following four-step process to deal with the 11 phase shifts:
1.
To identify clients’ closed system thinking
strategies
2.
To help clients to realize that such efforts at
control, certainty, knowledge, and predictability are crucially limited.
3.
To assist clients to recognize and utilize the
stabilities and surprises of living n the strange attractor.
4.
To enable people to be able to both perceive the
dimensions of complexity and acknowledge and effectively negotiate uncertainty,
change, and chance in constructive ways to fulfill their deepest aspirations.
