Graduate Corequisites: Graduate Corequisites: HB 735; Or permission of department chair. Requ ired of all students. - Human Behavior in the Social Environment (HBSE) is designed to help you chart a knowledgeable course through the complexity of human experience. We will explore a select set of theories that help us understand how individuals and communities develop and interact. Because empathic and skillful interventions with individuals, groups, and communities require understanding ourselves as well as others, the course provides an opportunity for increased self-awareness. At the beginning of the course, we focus on the key theories that help us understand the dimensions and expression of human behavior in the social environment. This discussion is followed by an examination of how dimensions of culture and cultural contexts can shape individuals values, beliefs, worldviews, and identities, all of which play a role in the helping process. Through discussion and analysis, we will explore areas of universality and difference in the context of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, spiritual beliefs, and socioeconomic class, as well as the realities and influence of multiple forms of oppression. Finally, we will examine human development throughout the lifespan, considering the developmental scientific knowledge base regarding opportunities and vulnerabilities during the different stages of the lifecycle, and the biopsychosocial and cultural factors that can influence individual development. HB 720 constitutes the foundation course in the human behavior department and is the underpinning of all courses in the HBSE sequence. The ability to analyze human behavior in the social environment, drawing from theoretically and empirically-grounded evidence bases, is essential for social work practice, whether the primary focus is clinical or macro. Social work has a distinct perspective that emphasizes the interconnection between individuals and their environments. The framework draws from other disciplines, including anthropology, economics, psychology, biology, and sociology. The course will provide an understanding of the interactions among biological, social, and psychological, and cultural systems. Forces that facilitate optimal growth and development will be contrasted with forces that impede development. The course will build on your undergraduate knowledge of basic human behavior theories, adding theoretical breadth, critical contextualization, and professional application.

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