Chaos theory, in vocational psychology dictionary

home > library > dictionary > chaos theory
Dictionary of Vocational Psychology

Chaos Theory

Application of chaos theory to career development has been spurred largely by the efforts of Gary Peterson and John Krumboltz, although a number of other theorists and researchers have joined the effort in recent years. Much of the early work focused on proposing theories based on metaphors about how careers might model processes in nature thought to be chaotic, that is, at the border by orderly processes and random events. Thus, terms such as strange attractors, turbulence, sensitivity to initial conditions, and information load entered into the emerging theories. Probably the most important result of chaos theory applied to career development has been the renewal of interest in career patterns research, except that researchers examining chaos theory tend to emphasize not the consistent, orderly nature of career patterns, but rather the importance of initial conditions and the impact of seemingly random perturbations on career development, that somewhat disrupt the ultimate trajectory of individual careers.

References