Chaos Theory

A New Way 

The Chaos Theory is a new way of looking at human behavior and a culmination of economics, mathematics, biology, and physics. It provides a different way of understanding human development's complex nature and uncertainty as it relates to career development. This theory moves counselors away from a reductionist view of human behavior and shifts towards emphasizing wholeness and change.

Pryor and Bright defined attraction as a process individuals use to organize a coherent self. They say that there are four different attractors:    

  1. Point Attractor: This attractor shows a pattern of behavior that often focuses on choosing the best occupation based on a match between personalities, abilities, and interests. People who think this way might experience tunnel vision when choosing an occupation. 
  2. Pendulum Attractor: This attractor describes swings in behavior. These people might hold to rigid beliefs and will often engage in either-or thinking. 
  3. Torus Attractor-  this pattern of behavior can be described as routine, habitual,  and predictable thinking and behavior. This person might try to control their lives through organization and classification. 
  4. Strange Attractor- this attractor thinks in terms of open systems, meaning the possibility of change in that small differences may result in every major system reconfiguration. Chance is not seen as the opposite of order, rather, a part of one's existence. 
Chaos theory also emphasizes the the importance of spirituality and how it integrates into our conceptualization of career development. Often, integrating spirituality brings connection, meaning, and harmony concerning one's occupation. 

This theory also calls the counselor to notice 11 different shifts: 
  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 Transformation 
  9. From Normative Thinking to Normative and Salable Thinking 
  10. From Knowing in Advance to Living with Emergence 
  11. From Trust as Control to Trust as Faith 

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