Blog 6

Nathan Scarbrough

Week 6 Discussion: Complexity, Chaos, and Nonlinear Dynamics

                The theory this article is based around was refreshing, well-written, and far more scientifically-based than the one we read last week (in my opinion).  This article does a great job or addressing the sheer number of factors affecting career decisions and provides a model that seems well-suited to address decisions of this complexity.

                To address the complexity of career decisions (and in turn every interconnected event in the universe), the author does a standup job at describing eleven elements of complex adaptive entities. As I read this section of the article, I learned to look at career development in a different way.  Looking at career choices as an ever-evolving, adapting, almost life-like entity, gave me a new perspective that I hadn’t considered before.  Yet, after reading this article, I must admit it seems to make perfect sense.  When the author successfully incorporated the fractal element of their argument, my mind was blown.

                The suggestions the author makes for incorporating these elements into the career-counseling situation will be extremely useful to the aspiring career-counselor.  For example, seeing deviance from traditional career-paths into more unexplored, risky, money-making endeavors should not be viewed as foolish, but as a learning experience.  Those who succeed, open doors to people considering similar options themselves, and those who fail, teach us all the dangers involved.  These deviances are completely necessary for the career opportunities of our culture to grow, shift-shape, and essentially evolve.  It is crucial for career counselors to be mindful of open-exchange.  That is, careers are influenced by internal and external factors, therefore, the counselor must remind his client to be mindful of his/her own potential, interests, and skills, while at the same time keeping an eye out for opportunities provided by his/her environment.  The section on fractals was my favorite, as I have always been fascinated with the concept of fractals since I began examining fern leaves in my backyard at a young age.  The idea that one’s career decisions reflect all elements of that person and their entire lives is a fascinating one that I will keep in mind if ever counseling an individual who is in a state of career crisis or indecision.  In a way, I feel this reflects the same message we learned from the article, Constructivist Counseling for Career Indecision, stating that if a counselor can help an individual to identify their life themes, they will be better able to guide the client in a career-based direction that will aptly fit with their life schemas and goals.

                While I was not able to touch upon every significant point this article made regarding their theory and its applications to career-counseling, I was able to pick a few that really stood out to me.  That being said, this article was loaded with fascinating, relevant, and important issues that shed a new light on the field of career-counseling.  For this reason, I suggest that every aspiring counselor read this article, so that they may learn to view a career decision not as a simple, linear choice, but as an ever-growing and evolving force, with internal and external factors, waiting to be recognized and acted upon by the individual.
 Bloch, D. (2005). Complexity, chaos, and nonlinear dynamics: A new perspective on career development theory. The career development quarterly, 53, 194-206.