Bloch+Article

=Complexity, Chaos, and Nonlinear Dynamics: A New Perspective on Career Development Theory=

__Key Points:__

Introduction:
 * Career counselors goals:
 * 1. to move client from being stuck --> absorbedness
 * 2. to work with people at every stage of life (youth, adulthood, middle age, elderly) so that all may achieve a sense of purpose and meaning in the work they do (Bloch, 2005, p. 195)
 * Classic career development has been based on reductionist approaches which find and isolate all the parts that will lead to the total or sum of knowledge about a phenomenon or organism (Bloch, 2005, p. 195)
 * Investigations into complex phenomena in both physical and biological sciences have shown that an understanding of relationships, subsuming structure and function, is a more fruitful path in understanding complex entities (Bloch, 2005, p. 195)
 * Career = complex adaptive entity
 * Subjective narrative of one's career
 * Transactional adaptations to the environment = "fitness peaks"
 * Interconnectedness of the world and all events
 * **Spirituality** - a connection to something beyond the individual; a search for meaning, purpose, and integration in life

The New Theory:
 * Complex adaptive entities ** Bloch writes that, “complex entities include not only all of life from single cells to human beings but also organizations from ant colonies to corporations” **
 * have the ability to maintain themselves although their components and even shapes may change
 * have life
 * **autopiesis** - the ability of the entity to maintain itself
 * life is the ability to adapt internally to changing environments
 * Entities are open
 * maintain themselves through ongoing flow and interchange
 * Entities are part of networks
 * Particular entity may have networks operating within it
 * Entities are parts of other entities
 * every organism has seen a fractal of the universe
 * fractals reveal themselves as irregular structures that are self-similar at different scales of manifestation
 * Entities are dynamic
 * in constant exchange of forms; //move between order and chaos//
 * **phase transitions** - comparable to the movement of water among it's three phases (liquid, solid/ice, gas/steam); opportunity for creativity and emergence of new forms
 * Fitness peaks - yield the greatest chance of survival
 * Phase transitions = nonlinear dynamics
 * complex identities behave in non-linear ways (Bloch, 2005, p. 197)
 * Small change = large effects
 * **Sensitive dependence:** a quality of ALL complex entities, is when small changes bring about large effects (Bloch, 2005, p. 197)
 * regardless of how similar the starting states of dynamic entities are, they will 'drift apart' after awhile (Bloch, 2005, p. 197)
 * As entity moves through transition - retains life and shape in response to attractors that limit movement/growth
 * **point attractor:** entity returns repeatedly to the same state as if drawn by a magnet
 * **pendulum attractor:** move back and forth between two identifiable states
 * **torus attractor:** moves around in a circular pattern repeating itself
 * Emergence = retain life through the creation of new forms
 * **strange attractors:** yield entity shapes that are neither linear nor contained
 * when plotted mathematically, the patterns form unique figures or fractals (Bloch, 2005, p. 198)
 * Complex entities = nested inseparability or connectedness
 * they are no longer living systems without interdependence
 * spirituality is the experience of this unity


 * Attractors can be understood as characteristics trajectories of a system, the feedback from the system, the end state, boundaries the balance between equilibrium and fluctuation = how people respond to challenges of working in the twenty-first century (Pryor and Bright, 2014)

Applying the Principles of Complex Adaptive Entities to Careers
 * Humans look for patterns / yearn for certainty
 * Humans have a predisposition to seek order, therefore often experience their own careers as illogical, having no clear relationships between actions and reactions (Bloch, 2005, p. 198)
 * they believe in a sequence of work roles that they are expected to follow (Bloch, 2005, p. 198)
 * they believe that others make career decisions based on logical links of past experience and that others expect this logic of them as well (but not what most experience) (Bloch, 2005, p. 198)
 * keep the strange links between events a secret, explain it as "luck" or "coincidence (Bloch, 2005, p. 198)
 * It is the "secret" stories that reveal the reality of a career (Bloch, 2005, p. 198)
 * Career paths = unexplained trajectories
 * **Autopiesis or self-regeneration** - people continually reinvent their career; it is a natural and internal process
 * **Open exchange -** career requires participation in the give-and-take of outside world
 * **Participation in networks**: career is an entity within the entity of the individual, but it is also part of the surrounding networks of education, occupations, industries, particular employers, needs of the community, local and global economies, and cultures
 * **Fractals -** career of any person is a fractal of that person's entire life experience
 * Is also a fractal of entire work and economic system
 * Patterns life choices and pathway
 * **Phase transitions between order and chaos** - individuals are thrown into change, from order to chaos
 * **Emergence** - Formation of patterns in life
 * **Search for fitness peaks** - search for best an individual can imagine for him/herself
 * **Nonlinear dynamics -** career development is a series of choices that have internal harmonics or resonances for that individual and can only be understood in terms of that individual
 * **Sensitive dependence or the potential for small changes to bring about large effects**
 * **Attractors that limit growth**
 * //Point attractor careers -// see only one occupation as possible, and often only one route into that occupation
 * pendulum attractors - Individuals in the grip of pendulum attractors may be unable to move forward, caught in the inertia of indecision
 * torus attractors - patterns are clearly repeated with slight differences in each repetition. Careers formed by torus attractors may feel comfortable, but the awfulness of the repeated trajectory is the illusion of change followed by the reality of being stuck
 * Described by Bright and Pryor as "characteristic trajectories, feedback mechanisms, end states, ordered boundedness, reality visions and equilibrium and fluctuation. (Bright 2007)"
 * **Role of strange attractors and emergence -** life has surprises; unexpected trajectories arise - allow careers to take new shapes
 * **Spirituality -** no living systems without interdependence

Links Among Complex Adaptive Entities, Spirituality, and Career Development
 * Spirituality - sense of connection; beyond the material world
 * More than 3/4 of Americans feel the need to experience spiritual growth in their lives
 * Employees who work for companies they consider to be spiritual are more productive and are less likely to leave those companies
 * Important for individuals to experience the sense of connectedness/interconnectedness
 * Seeing work as spiritual prescribes meaning and value to the work and contribution to the world
 * Identified seven connectors between spirit and work. These connectors may assist individuals in maintaining the sense of interconnectedness, a sense that is otherwise often fleeting and difficult to act on. The seven connectors are as follows:

Change: Being open to change in yourself and the world around you > Balance: Achieving balance among the activities of your life such as work, leisure, learning, and family relationships as well as balance between the old and new > Energy: Feeling that you always have enough energy to do what you want to do > Community: Working as a member of a team or community of workers > Calling: Believing that one is called to the work one does by a particular mix of talents, interests, and values > Harmony: Working in a setting that harmonizes with one's talents, interests, and values > Unity: Believing that the work one does has a purpose beyond earning money and in some way serves others

Case Analysis: Marion's Calling Implications for Practice
 * Marion feels frustrated in work environment and grapples with the possibility that she's in the wrong field - until ultimately she realizes she simply is in an environment/position that does not allow her to utilize her skills and potential; she was unable to enact her calling. The article states that Marion's distress was a sign of phase transition.
 * Caught in torrus attractor - endless circle of problems (low funding and high client demand)
 * Personal strange attractor strengthened - career taking new shape inspired by younger peer discussing her calling to the field
 * Recognizing transition points (where creativity happens); recognizing attractors of the past; and seeking fitness peaks
 * Listen to stories - help client find links in their networks
 * Accept that change is inevitable but uncomfortable
 * Help clients assess degree of risk during transition phases
 * Help clients understand the power of small changes and help them identify those they might attempt.
 * Explore how individual careers are kept alive by attractors
 * Recognize need to feel connections or the spiritual aspect of work
 * Stress opportunities presented by phase transitions because change is the only certainty

Bloch, D. P. (2005). Complexity, chaos, and nonlinear dynamics: A new perspective on career development theory. //The Career Development Quarterly, 53,// 194-207.
Pryor, R., & Bright, J. (2007). Applying Chaos Theory to Careers: Attraction and attractors.Journal of Vocational Behavior, 375-400.

Pryor, G. R., & Bright, J. E. (2014). The chaos theory of careers (CTC): Ten years on and only just begun. //Australian Journal of Career Development, 23//(1), 4-12.