Contemporary Human Behavior Theory

Encourage students to think critically about social work practice with a multidisciplinary, theoretical approach
Contemporary Human Behavior Theory: A Critical Perspective for Social Work Practice takes a multidisciplinary, theoretical approach to HBSE and provides a consistent analytical framework for readers to examine both traditional and contemporary theories. Students are encouraged to develop their critical-thinking skills as they explore each theory and analyze the social, ideological, and economic structures of society that impact individual problems. Each chapter includes coverage of the research that supports a particular theory, an analysis of the validity of that research, and a discussion of contemporary issues.    

Updated with material that is critical to social work practice today, the 4th Edition includes new cases with practice application exercises, and expanded content on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, and intersex (LGBTQI+) persons’ development and empowerment.

About our authors

Susan P. Robbins, PhD, LCSW, is Professor at the University of Houston, Graduate College of Social Work. She has been a clinical and forensic social worker and educator for over 35 years. She served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Social Work Education from 2013-2016 and is the lead author of two monographs on drug abuse prevention. She is also a contributing author to the Encyclopedia of Social Work and the Social Workers' Desk Reference and has published numerous journal articles. She teaches courses on theory, human behavior in the social environment, mediation and a national award-winning graduate course on substance abuse. In 2016 she was the recipient of the Sol Gothard Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Organization of Forensic Social Work.

Pranab Chatterjee, PhD, is Professor Emeritus at the Mandell School of Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University. He is the author of many books and journal articles on the welfare state, social policy and human behavior. His books, Approaches to the Welfare State (1996) and Repackaging the Welfare State (1999), both published by NASW Press, show how the welfare states require an economic surplus. Further, the books show how the welfare state is often an ideological compromise and a camouflage for many types of conflict, as well as a by-product of industrialization. His co-authored papers on human behavior in the Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare and Social Development Issues, dispute the theory of universal stages of human development and suggest that adolescence and old age are socially constructed in local communities. His challenge of existing theories of human development, thus, suggest that human behavior is locally constructed and cannot be seen as a universal phenomenon.

Edward R. Canda, MA, MSW, PhD, is Professor and Coordinator of the Spiritual Diversity Initiative at the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare. Dr. Canda's research and service address connections between cultural diversity, spirituality and resilience in relation to health, mental health and disabilities. For over 40 years, Professor Canda has been exploring insights from Eastern philosophy for social welfare. He has about 200 publications and has conducted about 230 presentations in the United States and in many other countries, especially in East Asia and Central Europe. His widely cited coauthored book, Spiritual Diversity in Social Work Practice (1999/2010) was published by Oxford University Press. In 2013, he received the Council on Social Work Education's Significant Lifetime Achievement Award for innovations on spirituality through scholarship and education.

George Stuart Leibowitz, PhD, LICSW, is Professor at Stony Brook University, School of Social Welfare in New York, where he teaches human behavior in the social environment and courses on trauma, substance abuse and clinical practice. He is Chair of the Integrated Health program and is Project Director for the 2017 HRSA Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training grant. Dr. Leibowitz's research agenda includes understanding and addressing addictions among underserved populations, as well as restorative justice and assessment and interventions with juveniles with sexually harmful behavior. He has published research articles in journals such as Trauma and Dissociation, Criminal Justice and Behavior and Journal of Child Sexual Abuse. He recently coedited the 2nd edition of Forensic Social Work: Psychosocial and Legal Issues Across Diverse Populations and Settings, published by Springer Publishing in 2017.