See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303717264
Applying the Chaos Theory of Careers as a Framework
for College Career Centers
Article in Journal of Employment Counseling · July 2016
DOI: 10.1002/joec.12030
CITATIONS
READS
16
3,133
2 authors, including:
Jon Schlesinger
Brandeis University
7 PUBLICATIONS 18 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
All content following this page was uploaded by Jon Schlesinger on 20 April 2018.
The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.
Received 07/10/14
Revised 08/30/14
Accepted 09/02/14
DOI: 10.1002/joec.12030
•
applying the chaos theory of careers as
a framework for college career centers
Jon Schlesinger and Lauren Pasquarella Daley
The chaos theory of careers (CTC; Pryor & Bright, 2011) has emerged as a career
development theory to describe the reality of career development and account for
the changing nature of work in the 21st century. Integrating CTC into a coherent
framework accessible to practitioners is an ongoing process. In recent years, CTC has
gained traction within some college career centers. Although techniques and interventions have been discussed to address some of the primary issues, no overarching
framework has been conceptualized. This article proposes a model to conceptualize
CTC in an accessible framework for college career centers, students, and beyond.
Keywords: chaos theory of careers, career decision making, college students,
university career centers, college career advisors, career counseling
Career development theories have shifted in the last 20 years, and the world of work
has changed dramatically. Career development has been moving from reductionist,
rational decision-making and matching models (Dawis & Lofquist, 1984; Holland,
1959; Parsons, 1909) to more adaptive and integrative conceptualizations (Blustein,
1997; Mitchell, Levin, & Krumboltz, 1999; Patton & McMahon, 2006; Savickas,
1997b). At the same time, the world of work has been changing, as evidenced by
societal needs, economic bubbles, and shifting social contracts between companies and
employees. These shifts necessitate updated career development and decision-making
models to assist college students in exploring their study, career, and life options.
In the application of the chaos theory of careers (CTC), Pryor and Bright (2011)
believed that they achieved an integrated framework that is more relevant for career development in the 21st century than older, linear theories. Although CTC
uses and has produced a number of interventions, Pryor (2010) noted that what has
been lacking is a “comprehensive framework” (p. 32) for CTC. We, having worked
in centralized college career centers and in private practice, found that college
students, in particular, need a framework for understanding and interpreting their
career development when applying the CTC lens. Bland and Roberts-Pittman (2014)
described CTC interventions as exploring students’ career narratives and presenting
feedback in the form of metaphors. The present article proposes such an integrated
metaphor and framework to conceptualize CTC in a more accessible format and
outlines specific interventions for a college student population, including traditional
18- to 24-year-olds and nontraditional students. We present an overview of CTC in
Jon Schlesinger, Career Services, University of Colorado Boulder; Lauren Pasquarella Daley, private practice, Catalyst, Inc., Gainesville, Florida. Jon Schlesinger is now at Hiatt Career Center, Brandeis University.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jon Schlesinger, Hiatt Career Center,
Brandeis University, 415 South Street, MS204, Waltham, MA 02454, (e-mail: jschlesinger@brandeis.edu).
© 2016 by the American Counseling Association. All rights reserved.
86
journal of employment counseling
• June 2016 • Volume 53
this article, providing a context for describing the specific interventions for college
students; however, a more complete description of CTC can be found in Pryor and
Bright (2011).
CTC arose from late 20th-century developments in general systems theories in math
and science to explore nonlinear changes and complex systems. CTC conceptualizes
career development as a dynamical system characterized by complexity, interconnectedness, and susceptibility to change (Pryor & Bright, 2011).
• Complex dynamical systems—describe the nonlinear impacts that small changes can
have on larger systems. Weather is the prototypical example of a complex dynamical
system where 100% predictability becomes impossible (Pryor & Bright, 2007).
• Attractors—are feedback mechanisms that describe complex systems and their
trajectories (Kaufman, 1995). Three attractors (point, pendulum, and torus attractors) represent closed systems and various states of career indecision. The
strange attractor represents an open dynamical system most closely aligned
with the reality of a career (Bright & Pryor, 2005).
• Fractals—explain the shifting nature of the strange attractor and the complexity required for adaptation (Pryor & Bright, 2007).
• Complexity, chance, and change—are overlapping elements that describe the
situational factors, unplanned events, and continual changes providing a basic
foundation for understanding career development (Pryor & Bright, 2011).
• Construction—within a complex and dynamical system, students become active
participants in creating “their own futures rather than [being] pawns in a rigidly
deterministic system of cause and effect” (Bright & Pryor, 2011, p. 164).
A New Framework for a CTC
Integrating the elements of CTC into a coherent framework accessible to career counseling practitioners comprises an ongoing process of development. Borg, Bright, and
Pryor (2006) developed a “butterfly model” to assist students in secondary schools
to better understand the planned and unplanned nature of career development.
Their model graphically demonstrates the strange attractor as two connected circles
rotating together. Although this conceptualization is not linear, it is still cyclical,
as illustrated by two closed loops. Additionally, Pryor (2010) outlined a framework
of three stages of counseling with CTC. Although CTC has been given theoretical
exposure in career development literature, it may be unknown to many practitioners
because it has not been extensively researched (Bland & Roberts-Pittman, 2014). We
believe what has also been lacking is a simplified model for CTC made accessible to
career counseling practitioners, particularly those working in college career centers
and with clients choosing a career path for the first time in any setting.
College career centers applied traditional career decision-making models (Harren, 1979;
Herr & Cramer, 1992; Super, 1957; Tiedeman & O’Hara, 1963) to college classifications
(freshman, sophomore, etc.) to create a 4-year college plan. Later models that Patton
and McMahon (2006) described as theories of content and process, including the social
cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, & Hacket, 1994) and the cognitive information
processing theory (Peterson, Sampson, & Reardon, 1991), expanded upon the earlier
journal of employment counseling
• June 2016 • Volume 53
87
theories and worked toward integrating decision making with career development. Many
models remain largely rigid and linear, however, when applied by college/university career
centers (these models are represented by four steps or circular patterns).
Examples of such linear or circular models include Cornell Career Services (2013); University Career Services, Northwestern University (2012); and University of Texas at Dallas
Career Center (2013). A 4-year linear plan with prescribed steps runs counter to the CTC
philosophy. CTC moves beyond the linear, traditional frameworks of career development to
a more complex and open system in the recognition that the number of career influences
everyone faces is large and unpredictable. Some college career centers have incorporated CTC
into their theoretical orientations (Pryor & Bright, 2014); we have integrated CTC with a new
framework for use with college students at two large, research-intensive, university-centralized
career centers, one in the Rocky Mountain region and one in the Southeast.
This new proposed model integrates existing models of career decision making for
college students into a coherent career development framework aligned with CTC. The
new model is designed to meet three objectives: (a) be in alignment with CTC, (b) meet
the needs of college students exploring majors or careers, and (c) act as a flexible 4-year
college plan. The phases of this present plan aim to be suitable for diverse career paths,
the changing nature of work, and a reduction of anxiety in students who have not already engaged in career development. The term phase was chosen to describe a distinct
process but not a stage or a step in a rigid order requiring sequential completion. The
proposed model includes four such phases: (a) Explore majors and careers, (b) Prepare
for an internship or job search, (c) Start an internship or job search, and (d) Adapt to a
changing world. For the sake of simplicity, this model is referred to as EPSA.
Using the EPSA Model With Students
We anecdotally found in our individual work with students that presenting the concepts
of CTC without explanation can create undue fear in students who may already be experiencing anxiety around their current career confusion. To reduce this existential anxiety
regarding the uncertain nature of a career, especially in today’s economy, it is essential
to present these concepts in a way that opens the student up to unpredictability without
frightening her or him into becoming a more rigid, closed system. Counselors can reframe
and introduce the concept of unpredictability as “staying flexible in your choices” or as
“remaining open to new ideas” or as “having a Plan B in case things change,” all as a way
of reducing anxiety. This type of language is essential in all the phases of EPSA.
Explore (CTC Concept of Complexity)
Exploration remains a fundamental aspect of career development, particularly to highlight
the complexity of situational factors involved in career decision making (Blustein, 1997;
Flum & Blustein, 2000; Patton & McMahon, 2006; Savickas, 1997a). Exploring majors
or careers continues to be relevant to modern college students and essential to the career
development process to facilitate pattern recognition within their own development. Explore
was chosen to capture this phase as an encompassing, active, and fundamental precept
in career development. The explore phase helps students identify and describe the complexities of the career development process in language that is more accessible to them.
The counselors’ goals in this phase include assisting students through both self-discovery
and vocational explorations while helping them construct meaning from the emerging
88
journal of employment counseling
• June 2016 • Volume 53
patterns in their chaotic systems. To help students from a CTC perspective, counselors
focus on what the students already know about themselves, or their complexity, and assist
them in exploring the patterns and themes in their lives to discover any emerging order.
Using the concept and effect of the strange attractor on a complex, dynamical system,
counselors use a variety of CTC interventions to facilitate students’ understanding of
the complex, unpredictable nature of careers and their awareness of the self-organized,
emergent patterns (the fractal nature) that inform the process.
Visual mapping exercises as described by Pryor (2003) help illustrate the fractal nature
of career development and assist students in seeing the current complexities, patterns,
and emerging order in their lives. Examples of visual mapping or mind maps include
lifelines (Cochran, 1997), wandering maps (Brooks, 2009), collages (Adams, 2003), and
genograms (Okiishi, 1987). Buzan and Buzan (1993) were among the first to use mind
maps to help people organize their interests and skills and recall significant life events.
The process of connecting these events together with a CTC orientation and organizing
them around themes allows students to see the complexity of influences in their lives,
the chance events that have helped create their path, and the emerging patterns they
are constructing. Thus, visual mapping techniques help students gain insight into the
situational factors in their lives that are affecting their career development process.
Pryor and Bright (2014) said, “The CTC has given rise to a range of new counselling
techniques and the adaptation of existing techniques” (p. 8). As such, there remains
a place for traditional interest and personality assessments. When used with a CTC
orientation, however, these assessment tools provide the counselor and student a
starting point for discussion, with a new, expanded career vocabulary that can better express the themes they find and allow for further exploration of the student’s
emerging patterns of interest. As with visual mapping techniques, counselors use
assessments not to test and tell, but to assist students in exploring their emerging
patterns and discovering the complexity of their own systems.
Prepare (CTC Concept of Chance)
Careers are complex and open systems with multiple situational factors influencing the
selection of majors and ultimately careers (Pryor & Bright, 2011). Because of the complexity of these systems, they are highly susceptible to chance events. When students
believe they can control or limit all of the outside factors affecting their lives, they are
engaging in closed-systems thinking, which does not help them to prepare for inevitable
life challenges (Pryor & Bright, 2011). As students begin to accept the eventuality of
chance, they can shift from closed- to open-systems thinking and begin to acknowledge
the impact of chance events on their career development (Pryor & Bright, 2011).
The prepare phase entails openness to new activities and a reframing of the risks
associated with such endeavors. We chose the term prepare over the term plan to
describe this phase because prepare denotes creating short-term flexible plans and
accomplishable tasks to increase self-efficacy (Pryor & Bright, 2012). Maintaining
long-term rigid career plans can result in the establishment of a point attractor and
the failure of students to acknowledge the complexity of factors and unplanned opportunities surrounding career development (Pryor & Bright, 2007).
Pryor and Bright (2005b) developed the Luck Readiness Index to assess students’
flexibility, optimism, risk, curiosity, persistence, strategy, efficacy, and luckiness in
journal of employment counseling
• June 2016 • Volume 53
89
career explorations. This assessment instrument assists students in understanding
their readiness to accept new opportunities. Drawing on concepts such as happenstance (Mitchell et al., 1999), the counselor’s main objective in this phase is to
help students develop openness and flexibility, habits which will prepare them to
discover suitable majors and careers. Happenstance learning theory (Krumboltz,
2009) consists of a number of questions to elicit previous chance events and then
guides students to recognize opportunities for risk taking.
The Reality Checking Exercise (Pryor & Bright, 2005a) provides an additional
framework to gauge students’ misconceptions concerning the world of work and
risk taking. Helping students through their misconceptions about major and career
choice, goal setting, and openness to risk mitigates their perceptions of risk in the
prepare phase. The Reality Checking Exercise (Pryor & Bright, 2005a) can start
the conversation with students based on their cognitive distortions, and it enables
counselors to modify the students’ unhelpful beliefs concerning chance.
We also used a number of approaches to challenge students’ perceptions of risk
taking and chance events. The visual mapping techniques described earlier, moreover,
allow students to see previous chance activities in their lives and their outcomes.
Reframing techniques are also useful in restructuring students’ beliefs about the
risks they currently take and the resulting rewards they receive, and place these life
experiences within a learning context. Using the attractors as a reference, counselors
can help students identify their closed-system thinking. In particular, being stuck
in a pendulum attractor is common. For example, a student states that he or she is
going to either law school or medical school. The student may see those as the only
two options, leading to inflexibility in the face of change. Highlighting the student’s
current state by drawing the pendulum attractor helps the student visualize this
closed-system thinking. The goal of these interventions is to encourage students to
examine the benefits of taking reasonable risks. One example is to ask students if
they have ever accidentally put their hand on a hot stove or iron. Counselors can
discuss what the students knew about the hot stove or iron prior to touching it and
what they learned and incorporated into their life skills as a result. The majority of
students find that touching the hot item was a risk, but one from which they learned
a valuable lesson. Finding the value in failure as a source of learning, addressing the
fear of failure, creating contingency plans, and creating tolerance for uncertainty are
all essential elements for integrating chance into one’s life (Pryor & Bright, 2012).
The prepare phase also includes the practical tasks associated with choosing a major
or beginning a (new) career path. These activities include researching options for majors,
speaking with academic advisors, developing job search materials, or preparing for job
search tasks, including conducting informational interviews and gathering materials
from which to develop a résumé. These elements are developmentally important for
students because they collectively emphasize the importance of chance events and
teach students to be proactive in new situations to discover new opportunities. Preparing to search for a job or internship enables students to integrate career exploration
with their self-assessments. In this phase, psychoeducation around limited control
and reframing risks becomes important. Messages from a CTC-based career center or
career counseling practice should discuss career as the interplay between unplanned
or random events and how people react to them. The career counselors’ goals during
90
journal of employment counseling
• June 2016 • Volume 53
sessions in this phase are to help students learn to view risk differently and to put
themselves into situations where they can come to see things in ways that will assist
them in living effectively and creatively—not least in the emergence of suitable careers.
Start (CTC Concept of Change)
Starting the career exploration or the job search means engaging students through
active exploration, allowing them to expand their knowledge of particular fields. Active engagement provides specific cognitive information about individuals and work
as well as affective information concerning one’s feelings about the information (Flum
& Blustein, 2000). These two systems, cognitive and affective, indicate that career
decision making must be both rational (planned) and intuitive (unplanned) and that
engagement through experiential activities can produce the optimal state in which to
make career decisions based on new experiences and information (Krieshok, Black,
& McKay, 2009). Even slight changes can affect a system; when these changes are
significant, they are termed phase shifts and the system reconfigures itself into a new way
of functioning (Pryor & Bright, 2011). By getting into the real world of jobs, students
can start to create the phase shifts and put themselves into the path of opportunity.
Because of the complexity of the situational factors and chance events affecting career
development, we have found that simply advising students to get started is a powerful
message for them, especially when framed within the context that all activities can bring
learning and provide them with important transferable skills. In CTC, the emphasis is
on “continual active engagement” (Pryor & Bright, 2007, p. 395). As Krumboltz (2009)
stated, “the goal of career counseling is to help clients learn [prepare] to take action
[start]” (p. 141) not simply to make one occupational decision, but to gain the tools for
lifelong career development. Getting started, even in the absence of clearly defined goals,
reinforces the importance of students’ embracing and creating their own chance events.
Adapt (CTC Concept of Construction)
Because careers are subject to chance events that cannot be predicted, engaging students
to focus on and gain comfort with the uncertainty of the emerging order is essential. The
term adapt (as opposed to decide) reinforces the CTC concept that a career is not based
on a single decision, but on a multiplicity of decisions made with limited and changing
information. Moving toward an open-systems perspective allows for “adapting to and recovering from unplanned events as they impact lives and careers” (Pryor & Bright, 2014, p. 6).
The adapt phase also reinforces the idea of constructing a career path (Bright
& Pryor, 2011) by the students’ capacity to appreciate the emerging patterns of a
self-organizing and complex system. According to Bright and Pryor (2011), “The
lack of ultimate control or predictability opens up the opportunity for individuals to
become active participants in the creation of their futures” (p. 164). At this point, a
number of interventions and reviews of lessons learned from previous interventions
drive students to shift their thinking toward open and adaptable patterns. Discussing uncertainty and adaptability in career decision making—something that can be
a new concept for students—often differs from the traditional view that one must
decide on a major and related career upon entering college.
journal of employment counseling
• June 2016 • Volume 53
91
An important point to discuss with students during this phase is the understanding
that change, even undesired change, can lead to positive outcomes. Having counseled
many pre-med students through dropping out of organic chemistry, we have found it
essential that the career counselor instills hope and uses the concept of adapting to reframe the apparent loss. Interventions to help students become comfortable with change,
the limits of predictability, and forced adaptation can include the experiences of peers
or network contacts gained through informational interviews. Narratives from people
whom students admire or who are connected with students’ intended careers are powerful real-life examples of the changing nature of work. Davey, Bright, Pryor, and Levin
(2005) found that showing students examples of fellow students experiencing chance
events and coping with uncertainty helped make such events and coping skills seem
normal and had a positive effect on students’ career decisions and self-efficacy. Asking
students to research selected successful people often opens students to the notion that
most successful people have failed at many things in their lives prior to their success.
We also found that CTC can be empowering when discussing the concepts of failure or
loss as related to career dreams. From such discussions, students come to consider their
career losses and forced adaptations a normal part of career and personal development.
As Pryor and Bright (2006) noted, despite constant change in systems, elements
of predictability remain. The Signature Exercise (Pryor & Bright, 2006) provides
a simple intervention illustrating both the limits of predictability and traces of
consistency despite change. During this activity, students sign their name as many
times as they can within 30 seconds. Inevitably, the last signature bears a decreased
resemblance to the first. There is no way that a student could have predicted what the
last signature would look like. It nevertheless includes the same letters in the same
order as the first, and there is a general similarity, a family resemblance so to speak,
among all the signatures. We have found this simple exercise can instill comfort with
uncertainty by illustrating what remains fairly fixed in a world of constant change.
Although there are limits to predicting the future, patterns emerge and provide some
consistency. One effective metaphor proposes creating short-term “fuzzy goals,” or a football metaphor suggests setting a goal for the next 5 yards, and then the 5 after that. These
metaphors underline the importance of creating short-term, flexible plans that allow more
room for change. Coupled with psychoeducation on situational influences and the lack of
100% predictability, these interventions can elicit powerfully helpful responses in students.
Assisting students to construct meaning by refocusing on the emerging patterns they have
identified and continuing to seek new experiences expands their engagement and adds
identifiable tasks to teach them to negotiate an otherwise uncertain phase of decision making.
A Visual Map of the Model: The Mobius Strip
The Mobius strip (Figure 1) can be used to illustrate a number of unique factors about CTC
and to relate it back to its mathematical origins. Mobius strips can be seen in visualizations
of Lorenz attractors, which are considered strange attractors (Holden & Muhammad, 1986)
as well as the best representation of both individuals and career development (Pryor &
Bright, 2007). Mobius strips have long been used as a metaphor for change, a well-known
example of which is the universal symbol for recycling. Mobius strips additionally have
practical applications in math, science, and engineering—even literature and music
92
journal of employment counseling
• June 2016 • Volume 53
Figure 1
EPSA: Explore, Prepare, Start, Adapt
(Pickover, 2006). The Mobius strip has a surface with only one side and one edge; it is
nonorientable and boundaryless (Pickover, 2006). In this way, the Mobius strip visually
reflects Arthur and Rousseau’s (1996) concept of a boundaryless career.
The phases are oriented along the Mobius strip to illustrate the nonlinearity and movement
associated with the CTC model and to indicate the lack of a true starting or finishing point. The
fundamental principle of nonlinear systems is that a small change can have a disproportionate
impact, no matter when the initial change takes place. Although the acronym EPSA is used
to help one remember the phases of the model, it does not indicate a required starting point.
A career is not a linear path with a clear start and end point. Chance events that occur will
create detours that enable new complex routes to develop. Even with those detours, the Mobius strip illustrates the repetitive but complex patterns influencing career decision making.
Students can start their career development at any phase and continue it in any direction.
Sometimes, perhaps often, they will find themselves returning to previous phases with new
information or a new perspective. The Mobius strip is an apt visual representation for the
phases of CTC career development and a metaphor for the process itself.
Initial Data on the Effectiveness of Using the EPSA Model
Following individual career counseling at our centralized career center in the Southeast, we asked students to indicate their level of comfort with the uncertainty of career
exploration and job searching. In the fall of 2010, before EPSA was formally adopted,
56% of students indicated they agreed or strongly agreed that they felt more comfortable with the uncertainty associated with career exploration and job searching after
counseling. After EPSA was formally implemented across the center in the fall of
2011, students’ reported level of comfort with uncertainty increased to 70%. Student
comments were similarly positive, such as “I still don’t know what I want to do but I
do know what I don’t want to do and [I] am more OK with not knowing until down the
road.” Many students also indicated the visual mapping techniques were useful, saying things such as “The tools with creating a collage of my career interest[s] was very
helpful in understanding what I really love and am passionate about doing.” EPSA was
also applied to an online career development class and a professional development
certificate, demonstrating that the framework is adaptable to a number of modalities.
journal of employment counseling
• June 2016 • Volume 53
93
Challenges Using the EPSA Model
Although we have found both CTC and our practical interpretation of the theory with the EPSA
model to work well in both college career centers and in other settings, there are challenges
worth noting. First, using a CTC approach with flexible plans and open boundaries may run
counter to the tracking and advising systems used by universities and colleges; counter to
the idea of a one-track, linear career path parents may have in mind for their children; and
counter to the specific, often linear, hiring needs of employers. We found it necessary to
create buy-in by educating not only our student clients, but all of these stakeholders on the
reasoning and importance of using a nonlinear, CTC approach with students. By finding the
common ground across these stakeholders as to why using this model is important (e.g., we
are teaching students/future employees to be adaptable, flexible workers who understand the
reality of the working world), we were able to create buy-in from these various audiences.
Second, when working with clients from economically disadvantaged backgrounds or with
those clients for whom financial constraints are paramount in their career decision making,
it is important to frame CTC and EPSA discussions/interventions around instilling hope for
the future while still acknowledging the financial realities that may be affecting the career
decision (Daley & Schlesinger, 2013). Counselors should frame these discussions in a way
that notes both the unique circumstances of the client’s situation and the inherent economic
privilege in “creating a flexible plan” and “putting yourself in the path of opportunity to find
a career path.” Using EPSA can help demonstrate to clients that even within what may appear to be a closed system, meaningful change can still occur (Daley & Schlesinger, 2013).
Directions and Need for Further Research
More research is needed to determine the effectiveness of these interventions. We found
that the EPSA approach worked very well with our population, but more empirical data
are needed to determine whether the interventions move clients toward long-lasting
productive change and improved career decision making. Further outcome and follow-up
measures assessing the effectiveness may provide more generalizable results for practitioners, and case studies with students would also assist in highlighting the application
of the EPSA phases. As Bland and Roberts-Pittman (2014) noted, CTC has not been
extensively researched because of its highly individualized nature; yet, qualitative and
mixed-method investigations would provide additional support for practitioners.
Finally, although we applied the model at two large, research-intensive universities
with diverse student populations in different areas of the United States, more data are
needed from other types of institutions, settings, and clients to determine whether the
model works well with different types of college students and beyond a college/university
setting. Further research is needed to study the effectiveness of the model with broader
ethnic and racial groups as well as more nontraditional–age students, economically
disadvantaged clients, and first-generation students.
Conclusion
With the world changing at a pace we cannot predict and new paradigms emerging
to help facilitate students’ career decision making, CTC can help students remain
open, flexible, and adaptable in a life characterized by complex changes (Pryor
94
journal of employment counseling
• June 2016 • Volume 53
& Bright, 2011). CTC provides a powerful framework of career development for
counseling students, whereas EPSA serves as a fitting way to provide them with
practical interventions. Although each presenting student is unique, the CTC-based
EPSA model enables career counselors to integrate career exploration with career
decision making for college students at any stage of their career development. It
offers them strategies in an uncertain time to become more adaptable and engaged
workers. For students, the nonlinear phases and open systems echo their own career
development and enable them to engage effectively in the career development and
career decision-making processes while gaining critical life skills. These life skills
instilled by CTC and the EPSA model help create flexible, adaptable workers who
are more comfortable with the complex, changing reality of employment and can
positively adjust to probable career uncertainty in the future.
References
Adams, M. (2003). Creating a personal collage to assist with career development. In M. McMahon & W.
Patton (Eds.), Ideas for career practitioners: Celebrating excellence in Australian career practice (pp.
4-7). Brisbane, Queensland, Australia: Australian Academic Press.
Arthur, M. B., & Rousseau, D. M. (1996). The boundaryless career: A new employment principle for a new
organizational era. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Bland, A. M., & Roberts-Pittman, B. J. (2014). Existential and chaos theory: “Calling” for adaptability and responsibility in career decision making. Journal of Career Development, 41, 382–401.
doi:10.1177/0894845313498303
Blustein, D. L. (1997). A context-rich perspective of career exploration across the life roles. The Career
Development Quarterly, 45, 260–274. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.1997.tb00470.x
Borg, T., Bright, J. E. H., & Pryor, R. G. L. (2006). The butterfly model of careers: Illustrating how planning and chance can be integrated in the careers of secondary school students. Australian Journal
of Career Development, 54, 54–59. doi:10.1177/10384162060150031
Bright, J. E. H., & Pryor, R. G. L. (2005). The chaos theory of careers: A user’s guide. The Career Development Quarterly, 53, 291–305. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.2005.tb00660.x
Bright, J. E. H., & Pryor, R. G. L. (2011). The chaos theory of careers. Journal of Employment Counseling, 48, 163–166. doi:10.1002/j.2161-1920.2011.tb01104.x
Brooks, K. (2009). You majored in what?: Mapping your path from chaos to career. New York, NY: Viking.
Buzan, T., & Buzan, B. (1993). The mind map book. London, England: BBC Books.
Cochran, L. (1997). Career counseling: A narrative approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Cornell Career Services. (2013). Cornell career guide 2013/2014. Retrieved from http://www.career.
cornell.edu/resources/downloads.cfm
Daley, L. P., & Schlesinger, J. (2013, July). Using chaos theory of careers with economically disadvantaged populations.
Education session presented at the National Career Development Association Annual Conference, Boston, MA.
Davey, R. P., Bright, J. E. H., Pryor, R. G. L., & Levin, K. (2005). Of never quite knowing what I might
be: Using chaos counselling with university students. Australian Journal of Career Development, 14,
53–62. doi:10.1177/103841620501400209
Dawis, R. V., & Lofquist, L. H. (1984). A psychological theory of work adjustment: An individual-differences
model and its applications. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Flum, H., & Blustein, D. L. (2000). Reinvigorating the study of vocational exploration: A framework for
research. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 56, 380–404. doi:10.1006/jvbe.2000.1721
Harren, V. A. (1979). A model of career decision making for college students. Journal of Vocational
Behavior, 14, 119–133. doi:10.1016/0001-8791(79)90065-4
Herr, E. L., & Cramer, S. H. (1992). Career guidance and counseling through the lifespan: Systematic
approaches. New York, NY: Harper Collins.
Holden, A. V., & Muhammad, M. A. (1986). A graphical zoo of strange and peculiar attractors. In A. V.
Holden (Ed.), Chaos (pp. 15–36). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
journal of employment counseling
• June 2016 • Volume 53
95
Holland, J. L. (1959). A theory of vocational choice. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 6, 35–44.
Kauffman, S. A. (1995). At home in the universe: The search for laws of self-organization and complexity.
New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Krieshok, T. S., Black, M. D., & McKay, R. A. (2009). Career decision making: The limits of rationality and the abundance of non-conscious processes. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 75, 275–290.
doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2009.04.006
Krumboltz, J. D. (2009). The happenstance learning theory. Journal of Career Assessment, 17, 135–154.
doi:10.1177/1069072708328861
Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., & Hackett, G. (1994). Toward a unifying social cognitive theory of career and academic
interest, choice, and performance. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 45, 79–122. doi:10.1006/jvbe.1994.1027
Mitchell, K. E., Levin, A. S., & Krumboltz, J. D. (1999). Planned happenstance: Constructing unexpected career
opportunities. Journal of Counseling & Development, 77, 115–124. doi: 10.1002/j.1556-6676.1999.tb02431.x
Okiishi, R. W. (1987). The genogram as a tool in career counseling. Journal of Counseling & Development,
66, 139–143. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6676.1987.tb00820.x
Parsons, F. (1909). Choosing a vocation. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
Patton, W., & McMahon, M. (2006). Career development and systems theory: Connecting theory and practice.
Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
Peterson, G. W., Sampson, J. P., & Reardon, R. C. (1991). Career development and services: A cognitive
approach. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Pickover, C. A. (2006). The Möbius strip: Dr. August Möbius’s marvelous band in mathematics, games,
literature, art, technology, and cosmology. New York, NY: Thunder’s Mouth.
Pryor, R. G. L. (2003). Mind mapping for medico-legal vocational assessment. In M. McMahon & W.
Patton (Eds.), Ideas for career practitioners: Celebrating excellence in Australian career practice (pp.
152–156). Brisbane, Queensland: Australian Academic Press.
Pryor, R. G. L. (2010). A framework for chaos theory career counselling. Australian Journal of Career
Development, 19, 32–40. doi:10.1080/00049530412331312984
Pryor, R. G. L., & Bright, J. E. H. (2005a). Chaos in practice: Techniques for career counsellors. Australian
Journal of Career Development, 14, 18–28. doi:10.1177/103841620501400105
Pryor, R. G. L., & Bright, J. E. H. (2005b). Luck Readiness Index manual. Sydney, New South Wales,
Australia: Congruence/Bright & Associates.
Pryor, R. G. L., & Bright, J. E. H. (2006). Counseling chaos: Techniques for practitioners. Journal of
Employment Counseling, 43, 9–17. doi:10.1002/j.2161-1920.2006.tb00001.x
Pryor, R. G. L., & Bright, J. E. H. (2007). Applying chaos theory to careers: Attraction and attractors.
Journal of Vocational Behavior, 71, 375–400. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2007.05.002
Pryor, R. G. L., & Bright, J. E. H. (2011). The chaos theory of careers: A new perspective on working in
the twenty-first century. New York, NY: Routledge.
Pryor, R. G. L., & Bright, J. E. H. (2012). The value of failing in career development: A chaos theory
perspective. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, 12, 67–79. doi:10.1007/
s10775-011-9194-3
Pryor, R. G. L., & Bright, J. E. H. (2014). The chaos theory of careers (CTC): Ten years on and only
just begun. Australian Journal of Career Development, 23, 4–12. doi:10.1177/1038416213518506
Savickas, M. L. (1997a). Career adaptability: An integrative construct for life-span, life-space theory. The
Career Development Quarterly, 45, 247–259. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.1997.tb00469.x
Savickas, M. L. (1997b). The spirit in career counseling: Fostering self-completion through work. In D.
P. Bloch & L. J. Richmond (Eds.), Connections between spirit and work in career development: New
approaches and practical perspectives (pp. 3–26). Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black.
Super, D. E. (1957). The psychology of careers: An introduction to vocational development. New York, NY: Harper.
Tiedeman, D. V., & O’Hara, R. P. (1963). Career development: Choice and adjustment: Differentiation and
integration in career development. New York, NY: College Entrance Examination Board.
University Career Services, Northwestern University. (2012). University career services 2012-2014 career
guide for undergraduate students, graduate students and alumni. Retrieved from http://issuu.com/
northwesternucs/docs/ucs12_final
University of Texas at Dallas Career Center. (2013). Overview of career development model. Retrieved
from https://www.utdallas.edu/career/model/
96
View publication stats
journal of employment counseling
• June 2016 • Volume 53