Human Behavior Theory and Social Work Practice: Genetics, Environment, and Development

Abstract

Human beings carry within them chemically encoded information that makes each a member of the human species and each a unique individual. Twin studies and adoptive studies provide the most solid genetic findings about individual differences in human behavior. Social work in the ecological perspective focuses on transactions between human beings and the environments. Newman describes two types of heredity. The first encompasses those attributes people all share as members of the human species. The second type of heredity encompasses those characteristics or traits such as hair color or blood type that are passed through specific gene pool from one generation to another. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the nucleic acid in chromosomes that is responsible for the transmission of hereditary traits. DNA forms long twisted double chains of nucleotides that make up chromosomes. Genetics is the study of heredity. Heredity affects each of us on many levels, as individuals, as members of families, and as members of the larger community.