ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to make sense of how people form and manage relationships, their behaviour towards others, and what people may call 'phases' in life and discusses the nature of genetic influence. It consists of biological knowledge about the body; psychological knowledge about feelings, behaviour and relationships; social knowledge about how societies and cultures function and influence the individual and the overlap areas between each of these. Everyone have to make sense of their development – women perhaps more than men are forced to understand their body and its changes. Unlike doctors, psychologists, counsellors or many other human service professionals, it is usual for one to have professional responsibility for several different life stages at the same time. Social workers acquire much of their specific information about the body and brain not in their initial training courses but in particular social work contexts. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.
