Expertise, in Introduction to Vocational Psychology

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Expertise and Career Development
Andrew D. Carson, VocationalPsychology.com

What does the study of expertise across specific fields of work tell us about the nature of vocational adjustment and its educational requirements?

The theory of expertise proposed by K. Anders Ericsson (1996b; Ericsson & Smith, 1991) has important implications for career development theory and practice. It offers the prospect of a theory that integrates educational and vocational psychology, plus supporting an experimental approach to the study of vocational success. In this essay, I provide a summary of his theory and adapt it, with minor extensions, to apply to life- span career development.

Ericsson (1996a) was interested in developing a scientific account of exceptional achievements, but faced the daunting task of separating out the unverifiable and often anecdotal evidence previously collected on the topic from evidence that met standard scientific criteria, namely:

Reliability. "The phenomenon occurs reliably in clearly specified situations with distinctive observable characteristics" (Ericsson, 1996a, p. 2). Substantial research has found that experts within the same field tend to vary in their performance of nonessential skills, and that reliably superior performance by experts occurs under "conditions that capture thee essence of expert performance in that domain" (Ericsson, 1996a, p. 4).
Reproducible in Laboratory. The "phenomena should be reproducible under controlled conditions in the laboratory to allow for experimental variation and systematic observation of the mediating processes" (Ericsson, 1996a, p. 2). Research by Erricsson and his colleagues has demonstrated that they can reproduce expert performance in many domains through "collection of standardized tasks with consensually established best responses" (Ericsson, 1996a, p. 6).
Measured in Absolute Terms. "The observed phenomenon for a specific situation should be predictable and describable by objective absolute measurements" (Ericsson, 1996a, p. 3). Ericsson proposes that absolute levels of performance are better for research on expertise than reliance on relative levels of performance, and the highest levels of performance in a domain can change over history and across social groups. Again, standardized laboratory tasks can provide such an historically invariant indicator of expertise (see Ericsson, 1996a, p. 6).

The term domain is crucial for Ericsson's approach. It is a field of skilled activity, such as chess. It is a more useful concept within the theory than occupation or career, because it applies not only to activities normally accorded status as occupation, but which the theory might still address. Many so-called leisure activities fall into this area. Also, it is useful to discuss progress in mastering a domain for children and adolescents who have not yet embarked on a career in the traditional sense. Some of the domains studied by Ericsson and his colleagues include chess (Charness, 1991; Charness, Krampe, & Mayr, 1996), sports (Shea & Paull, 1996; Starkes, Deakin, Allard, Hodges, & Hayes, 1996) and dance (Allard & Starkes, 1991), music (Sloboda, 1996), physics (Anzai, 1991), medicine (Patel, Kaufman, & Magder, 1996), reading (Wagner & Stanovich, 1996) and literate expertise (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1991).

One of the most widely cited claims from expertise research is the "10-year rule," first proposed in relation to expertise development among chess players (Simon and Chase, 1973), and later generalized to other domains (Bloom, 1985; Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Romer, 1993; Howe, 1999). The 10-year rule essentially says that anyone seeking to perform at world-class level in any significant domain must engage in sustained, deliberate practice in the activity for a period of at least ten years. Even prodigies with particular obsessive tendencies toward deliberate practice in a domain must work for something approaching that time (Ericsson, 1996a, p. 10).

The mainstream vocational psychologist might at this point say, "Wait a second. It's all well and good to discuss expertise in the context of industrial-organizational psychology or perhaps gifted education, but it's not relevant for career development for the general population." To the contrary -- assuming Ericsson's theory is correct -- research on the development of expertise is relevant to all people, regardless of ability or level of achievement, because the same learning mechanisms operate across all stages of talent development, from novice to expert. However, different methods of instruction and practice do have an affect on how rapidly additional skill may be acquired. Bloom (1985) and his colleagues proposed so- called stages in talent development related to different methods of instruction available to individuals as they progress in their particular talent domains. Ericsson, Krampe, and Heizmann (1993) extended the Bloom work by proposing four clear stages in talent development:

I. Gradual and steady improvement in basic and unpracticed skills.
II. Practice begins, but involvement is part-time. Initially rapid gains eventually level off to asymptote.
III. Begin full-time involvement. Initial gains in improvement again level off to asymptote.
IV. Experts seeking to make eminent achievements. Gains are small and incremental and eventually level off to asymptote. Such experts creates the leading edge of the domain as they advance.

At each successive level or stage, the number of individuals remaining active in the talent domain drops. However, Ericsson assumes that the same principles for the acquisition of expertise hold at every level, although the benefits of particular strategies of learning and practice may level off after a period of time.

In addition to the quality of training offered (especially important in stages II and III), research on expertise has demonstrated the importance of deliberate practice (Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch-Romer (1993). According to Ericsson (1996a, pp. 20-21), deliberate practice occurs when the following conditions are met:

Well-defined task.
Appropriate difficulty for the individual.
Informative feedback. Because informative feedback is so important in deliberate practice, practice alone is generally not as effective in the acquisition of expertise as is practice with others (teachers, coaches) who will provide feedback. Likewise, practice under conditions of "flow" (Csikszentmihalhyi, 1990) cannot count as deliberate practice, regardless of how enjoyable it is, because an individual in flow becomes lost in the activity (Ericsson, 1996a, p. 25).
Opportunities for repetition and correction of errors.

It is difficult to engage in deliberate practice while at work (Ericsson, 1996a, p. 21). The goal during work and in most forms of formal competition is usually to repeat well- rehearsed actions repeatedly and as reliably as possible. Many educational settings foster deliberate practice, as one might expect. However, there exist important differences between more structured, teacher-led practice, versus independent practice while alone. At any rate, important components of deliberate practice are concentration, effort, and steadiness of purpose.

Total amount of deliberate practice (both structured and alone) is a good predictor of level of absolute expertise (see Howe, 1999). Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch-Romer (1993) clearly demonstrated this for musicians, but research has also found a consistent result across other domains. This relationship between deliberate practice appears to be causal and not simply correlational (Ericsson, 1996a, pp. 23-24).

Although Ericsson (1996a, p. 28) denies that innate intelligence of fixed (and presumably heritable) abilities play any great role in the acquisition of expertise, he (1996a, p. 27) does suggest that inherited tendencies in personality and even interest orientations may direct attention and sustained effort, and therefore the tendency to continue to engage in deliberate practice (which is not inherently enjoyable, and which is usually less enjoyable than leisure activities).

Ericsson's (1996a) theory may have implications for the debate over changes in intelligence over the past century, as reported by James Flynn. Dickens and Flynn (in press) recently proposed a mathematical model that seeks to explain population increases in intelligence due in large part to increases in practice and many of the same factors identified by Ericsson.

Relevance for Career Development

Expertise theory is relevant for vocational psychology and career development because it provides a causal theory for the development of skills required for success at any level of talent development, providing a bridge between education, career, and leisure activity. Further, it provides strong hypotheses regarding the relative impact of personality and interest traits (strong and potentially heritable), life history events and social support (strong), and intelligence and specific aptitudes (weak, potentially nonexistent except as created by environmental influences interacting with personality, interest, and life history).

Expertise theory provides an optimistic basis for the practice of career counseling. With deliberate practice, and with a 10-year period in which to carry it out, almost anyone, with sufficient effort and concentration (plus access to skilled instructional support), can reach most vocational goals, even at the highest level of performance. Howe (1999) argues that what we perceive as genius in highly successful individuals is largely the result of "doggedness, persistence, [and] the capacity for fierce and sustained concentration, as well as intense curiosity" (p. 204). What holds us back is our lack of will and our ignorance of the true basis for success.

References

Allard, F., & Starkes, J. L. (1991). Motor skill experts in sports, dance, and other domains. In K. A. Ericsson & J. Smith (Eds.), Toward a general theory of expertise: Prospects and limits (pp. 126-152). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Anzai, Y. (1991). Learning and use of representations for physics expertise. In K. A. Ericsson & J. Smith (Eds.), Toward a general theory of expertise: Prospects and limits (pp. 64-92). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bloom, B. S. (1985). Developing talent in young people. New York: Ballantine.

Charness, N. (1991). Expertise in chess: The balance between knowledge and search. In K. A. Ericsson & J. Smith (Eds.), Toward a general theory of expertise: Prospects and limits (pp. 39-63). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Charness, N., Krampe, R., & Mayr, U. (1996). The role of practice and coaching in entrepreneurial skill domains: An international comparison of life-span chess skill acquisition. In K. A. Ericsson (Ed.), The road to excellence: The acquisition of expert performance in the arts and sciences, sports and games (pp. 51-80). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Csikszentmihalhyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper & Row.

Dickens, W. T., & Flynn, J. R. (in press). Heritability estimates versus large environmental effects: The IQ paradox resolved. Psychological Review.

Ericsson, K. A. (1996a). The acquisition to expert performance: An introduction to some of the issues. In K. A. Ericsson (Ed.), The road to excellence: The acquisition of expert performance in the arts and sciences, sports and games (pp. 1-50). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Ericsson, K. A. (Ed.). (1996b). The road to excellence: The acquisition of expert performance in the arts and sciences, sports, and science. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T., & Heizmann, S. (1993). Can we create gifted people? In K. A. Ericsson, R. T. Krampe, & S. Heizmann (Eds.), in The origins and development of high ability (pp. 224-249). Chichester, UK: Wiley.

Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T., & Tesch-Romer, C. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 100, 363-406.

Ericsson, K. A., & Smith, J. (Eds.) (1991). Toward a general theory of expertise: Prospects and limits. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Glaser, R. (1996). Changing the agency for learning: Acquiring expert performance. In K. A. Ericsson (Ed.), The road to excellence: The acquisition of expert performance in the arts and sciences, sports and games (pp. 303-312). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Holmes, F. L. (1996). Expert performance and the history of science. In K. A. Ericsson (Ed.), The road to excellence: The acquisition of expert performance in the arts and sciences, sports and games (pp. 313-320). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Howe, M. J. A. (1996). The childhood and early lives of geniuses: Combining psychological and biographical evidence. In K. A. Ericsson (Ed.), The road to excellence: The acquisition of expert performance in the arts and sciences, sports and games (pp. 255-270). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Howe, M. J. A. (1999). Genius explained. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Patel, V., Kaufman, D. R., & Magder, S. A. (1996). The acquisition of medical expertise in complex dynamic environments. In K. A. Ericsson (Ed.), The road to excellence: The acquisition of expert performance in the arts and sciences, sports and games (pp. 127-166). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Shea, J. B., & Paull, G. (1996). Capturing expertise in sports. In K. A. Ericsson (Ed.), The road to excellence: The acquisition of expert performance in the arts and sciences, sports and games (pp. 321-336). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Simon, H. A., & Chase, W. G. (1973). Skill in chess. American Scientist, 61, 391-403.

Sloboda, J. A. (1996). The acquisition of musical performance expertise: Deconstructing the "talent" account of individual differences in musical expressivity. In K. A. Ericsson (Ed.), The road to excellence: The acquisition of expert performance in the arts and sciences, sports and games (pp. 107-126). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Starkes, J. L., Deakin, J. M., Allard, F., Hodges, N. F., & Hayes, A. (1996). Deliberate practice in sports: What is it anyway? In K. A. Ericsson (Ed.), The road to excellence: The acquisition of expert performance in the arts and sciences, sports and games (pp. 81-106). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Wagner, R. K., & Stanovich, K. E. (1996). Expertise in reading. In K. A. Ericsson (Ed.), The road to excellence: The acquisition of expert performance in the arts and sciences, sports and games (pp. 189-226). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.