Human Behavior and Social Environments: A Biopsychosocial Approach

✍ Scribed by Dennis Saleebey

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 526
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Human behavior is a subject so vast that it would seem to defy one's ability to comfortably and confidently grasp its varieties, nuances, shapes, and dynamics. But in this wide-ranging and comprehensive survey of the contexts of human behavior, Dennis Saleebey examines the different social science approaches to understanding the way humans react to and are affected by their environment.

Using a biopsychosocial perspective, this book demonstrates that there are many paths of knowledge, many methods of inquiry, and many perspectives that can guide one's understanding of human behavior. Resilience (how we cope with trauma) and meaning-making (how we see and make sense of the world around us) provide the conceptual framework of the book. Saleebey examines a number of specific theories relevant to the biopsychosocial approach: part/whole analysis, psychodynamic theory, ecological theory, cognitive theory, and radical/critical theory. Human development is presented as a continuing interaction between individual, family, community, social institutions, and culture. Pedagogical devices to aid the student include chapter overviews, case studies, and meaning-making dialogues at the end of each chapter that pose questions for further thought.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
CHAPTER ONE Introduction
Philosophical Principles
Conceptual Frameworks
Integrative Themes
Paradigms, Postmodernism, and Possibilities
M and M Dialogue
CHAPTER TWO Meaning-Making
Self
Culture
Story, Connection, Ritual, and Myth
M and M Dialogue
CHAPTER THREE Strengths and Resilience
Strengths and Reslilience: Images of Altruism and Humanity
M and M Dialogue
CHAPTER FOUR Biopsychological Understanding
Human Nature and the Human Condition
Genes and Experience: The Case of Temperamet
The Brain and Behavior: The Biopsychosocial View
Conclusion
M and M Dialogue
CHAPTER FIVE Nature and Nurture, Neurons and Narratives: Putting It All Together
Nature and Nurture: How Necessary are Parents?
Neurons and Narratives: A Biospychosocial Understanding of Mental Illness
Conclusion
M and M Dialogue
CHAPTER SIX Theories: Part I
The Elements of Theory
Psychodynamic Theory
M and M Dialogue
CHAPTER SEVEN Theories: Part II
Ecological Theory
Cognitive Theory
Conclusion
M and M Dialogue
CHAPTER EIGHT Person/Environment, Part I: Families - The Variety of Us
The Family and Society Today: What's Up?
What are Families For?
Family Resilience
Conclusion
M and M Dialogue
CHAPTER NINE: Person/Environment, Part II: Coming Into Being in the Family and Community
A Contextual Model of Family Transition and Adaptation
Becoming Partners and Being a Couple
A New Human Being Joins the Family
When Things Go Awry
Conclusion
M and M Dialogue
CHAPTER TEN Person/Environment, Part III: Growing Up in Family and Community
Middle Childhood: The Forgotten Years
Conclusion
M and M Dialogue
CHAPTER ELEVEN Person/Environment, Part IV: Coming of Age in Family and Community
Sturm und Drang or The Romance of Risk?
Conclusion
M and M Dialogue
CHAPTER TWELVE Person/Environment Part V: Maturing and Aging in Family and Community
Maturity: Love, Work, Connection, and Closure
Some Important Moments in Adult Life
Coming of (Older) Age in America
Conclusion
M and M Dialogue
CHAPTER THIRTEEN Reprise, Vision, and the Final Conversation
Reprise
So What is The Good Life, Anyway?
Conclusion
The Final M and M Dialogue
Index