"The primary goal of this text is to support social work students in HBSE 1 courses to develop a conceptual framework for understanding and meeting the challenges they will likely encounter in 21st century practice. Through contemporary scholarship in human development, ecology, and systems theory, we build on social work's classic bio-psycho-social-spiritual framework. Our interdisciplinary, developmental, ecological-systems framework addresses the ways in which human beings shape, and are shaped within, complex and dynamic national and international contexts across the lifespan. We attempt to establish a bridge between undergraduate courses in the social, behavioral and biological sciences; and social work practice courses. We begin by establishing a framework for understanding human behavior in the social environment through chapters providing an historical overview of the interdisciplinary roots of the developmental-ecological systems framework, the brain and development, and the role of empirical evidence on social work practice. Then we examine social work issues at various points in human development using specific programs and policies to illustrate developmentally - and culturally- sensitive social work practice. These chapters include excerpts from interviews with practicing social workers. Part 3 focuses on social work issues affecting individuals across the lifespan and around the globe through chapters on disability and stigmatization; race, racism and resistance; women and gender; and terrorism"--