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Most contemporary theories of career development have difficulty taking into account current realities of career decision-making including complexity, change, constructivism and chance. We sought a conceptual formulation that incorporated the best of contemporary theories in a larger framework, which at the same time incorporated such realities. Under the influence of four intellectual currents—contextualism/ecology; systems theory; realism/constructivism; and chaos theory—an attempt was made to adumbrate a chaos theory of careers emphasising complexity, order, randomness and sensitivity to non-linear change.

The role of contextual and unplanned factors on career decision-making was explored. Six hundred and fifty one university students at all levels were surveyed to collect data on career intentions, current enrolments, perceptions of influence of family, friends, teachers and the media, the role of serendipitous events and the education and current work of their family members. Results indicated that students perceived family and teachers to be significant influences on their career decisions. Furthermore, distal influences such as the media and web-based information were also significant. Students' current course enrolments and career intentions were significantly more likely to be in interest categories congruent with their father's job. Unplanned and serendipitous events were very commonly perceived to influence career decisions. The results are interpreted as providing support for an open systems theory of career decision-making. Practical counselling and future research implications are discussed.Re´sume´. Le rô le du contexte social et des e´ve´nements accidentels dans la prise de de´cision vocationnelle. On explore le roˆle des facteurs contextuels et inattendus dans la prise de de´cision vocationnelle. On a examine´651 e´tudiants universitaires appartenant a`tous les niveaux d'e´tudes pour rassembler des donne´es sur les intentions professionnelles, les choix d'inscription actuels, les perceptions de l'influence de la famille, des amis, des professeurs et des me´dias, le roˆle des e´ve´nements accidentels ainsi que le niveau d'e´tudes et professionnel des membres de leur famille. Les re´sultats montrent que les e´tudiants perc¸oivent la famille et les professeurs comme des sources d'influence significatives de leurs de´cisions vocationnelles. En outre, les influences distales comme celles e´manant des me´dias et de l'information recueillie sur la toile sont e´galement significatives. Les inscriptions aux cours et les intentions vocationnelles actuelles tendent a`tomber dans des cate´gories d'inte´reˆt qui correspondent au travail du pe`re. Les e´tudiants perc¸oivent divers e´ve´nements non planifie´s et accidentels comme influenc¸ant leurs de´cisions vocationnelles. Les re´sultats sont interpre´te´s comme venant a`l'appui d'une the´orie de syste`mes ouverts de prise de de´cision vocationnelle. Les implications de cette e´tude pour la consultation clinique et la recherche future sont examine´es.Zusammenfassung. Die Bedeutung des sozialen Umfelds und glu¨cklicher Umsta¨nde bei Berufsentscheidungen. Die Bedeutung von Einflu¨ssen aus dem Umfeld und von ungeplanten Faktoren auf Berufsentscheidungen wurde untersucht. 651 Universita¨tsstudenten aus allen Bereichen wurden befragt, um Daten u¨ber berufliche Pla¨ne, derzeitige Immatrikulationen, Wahrnehmungen der Einflu¨sse von Familie, Freunden, Lehrern und der Medien, aber auch u¨ber die Bedeutung von glu¨cklichen Umsta¨nden, dem Bildungsstand der der derzeitigen Berufsta¨tigkeit ihrer Familienmitglieder zu erheben. Die Ergebnisse belegen, dass die Studenten in ihr...

A chaos theory of career choice and development is outlined. Traditional trait-factor theories of career choice and development overlook too many pertinent influences on career decision-making, such as change and chance events. As a consequence these reductionist approaches fail to adequately capture some of the most salient influences on an individual's career decisions. More recent systems theory approaches better acknowledge the complex array of influences and the recursive nature of many of those influences. These models have been useful in providing taxonomy of influences that have frequently been overlooked. Developing from such models the chaos theory of careers is outlined. The chaos theoretical approach to career decision-making builds upon this identified complex array of influences. It provides a framework for understanding why career trajectories are not exactly repeatable, how relatively minor changes in subtle variables can lead to major changes in career path and how realist and constructivist approaches to career decisionmaking may be reconciled within a unitary framework. Some of the objections to systems theory approaches are canvassed along with some implications of the chaos theory of careers.