Public health professionals know what behaviors contribute to health; however, they know less about why people fail to adopt healthy practices. This course is based on the premise that the more we understand about why people behave the way they do, the more successful we will be as we develop and implement programs and policies designed to improve health. This course uses psychology, sociology and anthropology to improve our understanding of the determinants of health behavior and will provide an introduction to a variety of health behavior theories and basic qualitative research methods. Our intent is to develop practical strategies for understanding the social and behavioral foundations of public health, enabling us to plan effective interventions. Working individually and in groups, students will use conceptual frameworks such as BEHAVE to help identify a public health problem, select a target audience, conduct basic qualitative research to determine facilitators and barriers to engaging in a given practice, and propose several behavior change and communications (BCC) strategies based on an assessment of the situation. GH720 meets the MPH core course requirement in social and behavioral sciences for Global Health concentrators and international, nonresident students who are not SB concentrators. Students may not take both GH720 and SB721 for MPH degree credit.