Characteristics of Complex Adaptive Entities

The Chaos Theory (Bloch, 2005), predominantly the characteristics of complex adaptive entities, can be described throughout my life.

Bloch (2005) summarizes her concept of the characteristics of a complex adaptive entity as a self-generating structure with numerous connections, which create the ability for an open back and fourth movement of energy. This entity is capable of using the line between chaos and order for the development of new forms and for development to occur (Bloch, 2005).  Somewhere in the mix all of this life, the unpredictably of life happens. 

That complex adaptive entity is I.  Beginning as a single cell and evolving and adapting to who I am I today, a twenty-two year old female graduate student from Richmond, Virginia.

Let’s analyze the ways the characteristics of Bloch’s complex entities has shaped me into the complex entity I am today.

1. Throughout my life, one thing has always been certain. I have maintained who I am as an individual, or as Bloch (2005) defines as autopiesis. I have lived in five different states, attended different schools and made a wide range of friends.  Nonetheless, my values and beliefs have been adapting internally to changing environments.

2. I have always been open as an individual. I have been flexible to the idea of new perspectives, changes and cultures. I experimented with different courses, and the idea of different majors.

3.  I have been apart of countless networks from numerous friend groups, sororities and clubs.

4.  I am a fractal of other entities.  I know that my life cannot be defined just through my social networks or education, but as a combination of many factors.

5.  I have been dynamic, and I have experienced phase transitions.  These transitions can be demonstrated in my life from high school to undergraduate.  I went from a big fish in a small pond in a small town, to a small fish in a pond with five thousand plus students.

6.  I seek fitness peaks.  As I had struggled with focusing on my course work in high school, I knew once I received my straight A’s that I was on the right track to being the student I had always aimed to be.

7.  I have behaved in nonlinear ways. As with anyone, life becomes crazy or filled with “noise,” (Bloch, 2005) and you feel as if you are being pulled and stretched in multiple ways. Some days, I did not know what was most important; school, sleep or friends?

8.  Small changes bring about large effects.  I thought joining a sorority would be a small part to my undergraduate career, but instead it turned into my home away from home. I made friends that would last a lifetime.

9. As I changed and adapted throughout my life, I have experienced multiple adaptors that have restricted my movement and growth from personal relationships, which demonstrated that of a pendulum attractor, to traveling between school and home to spend equal time.

10. As I have evolved and changed, I have been able to retain life through the creation of new forms, or emergence, Millersville University. I am attending a university that is four hours from home. I have been able to create a life here.

11.  “There are no living systems without interdependence,” (Bloch, 2005, p. 198). I would not be who I am today without my strong faith in spirituality and the networks I have surrounded myself with.

In summary, I have evolved, adapted and grown throughout my life and demonstrated each characteristic along the way.  Life is anything but predictable but that is what makes it fun.

Resources: 

Bloch, D. P. (2005). Complexity, Chaos, and Nonlinear Dynamics: A New perspective on Career Development Theory, The Career Development Quarterly, 53, 194-207.