DONALD H. FORD, PhD, was, until his retirement in 1995, a professor of biobehavioral health and individual and family studies as well as Chair of the Department of Biobehavioral Health at Pennsylvania State University. A prolific author, his recent books include Developmental Systems Theory, Humans as Self-Constructing Living Systems: A Developmental Perspective on Behavior and Personality, and Humans as Self-Constructing Living Systems: Putting the Framework to Work.
HUGH B. URBAN, PhD, was, until retiring in 1986, a professor of psychology, director of human development and family studies at Pennsylvania State University, and a consulting psychologist with Counseling Service, Inc. His recent publications include The Concept of Development from a Systems Perspective, and Dysfunctional Systems: Understanding Pathology.Don Ford and Hugh Urban have been collaborators for four decades. In addition to teaching clinical psychology at Penn State, they created and ran a comprehensive program of psychological services for students and their families; and founded and directed the College of Health and Human Development, a multidisciplinary professional training institution, within which they created and ran several programs in human development and family studies and biobehavioral health.