Introduction

Originally published in 1987, the purpose of this companion volume to Donald Ford’s (1987) Humans as Self-Constructing Living Systems: A Developmental Perspective on Personality and Behavior was to illustrate the potential utility of the Living Systems Framework (LSF) for stimulating new theoretical advances, for guiding research on human behavior and development, and for facilitating the work of the health and human service professions.

Although not exactly a "how to" manual, it does provide many concrete examples of how and when the framework can be used to guide scholarly and professional activities. It also provides a concise overview of the framework itself that can help those who have read the theoretical volume refresh their memory, and assist those who have not, in understanding the basic concepts of the LSF and in deciding whether and how the framework might be useful to them.