Meaningfulness of Occupations as an Occupational-Life-Trajectory Attractor

Abstract

Abstract According to Royeen (2003), chaos/complexity theory might be better suited than linear methods to provide a conceptual framework for the study of occupation and occupational behavior because of the complexity of these phenomena. The purpose of this paper is to present one way of conceptualizing human occupational life using some constructs from chaos/ complexity theory. It is proposed that human occupational life might be understood as an occupational‐life‐trajectory consisting of a repertoire of occupations chosen and performed over time. An argument is made, using empirical evidence from a previous pilot study (Ikiugu & Rosso, 2004), that meaningfulness may be viewed as an attractor for this trajectory, with conditions that make individuals perceive occupations to be meaningful forming a basin of attraction (conditions structuring patterns of participation in occupations). Such a view of meaningfulness may be one way of understanding the nature, structure, and features of occupation.