這門課程希望能將社會與行為科學的基本概念與理論，應用到對健康、疾病及環境相關的觀察中。就學術領域而言，「健康行為科學」與「醫學社會科學」(medical social sciences) 在範疇上是很難劃分的。不過近數十年來，個人行為在疾病罹患與人群健康上所扮演的角色愈來愈被強調，使得「行為」一詞受到前所未有的青睞，也引起熱烈的討論與爭辯。從深度與廣度而言，任何健康議題皆與行為有關。由於相關的現象愈形錯綜複雜，因此也須要人類知識體系中的各領域由不同的角度，以不同的方法加以檢視，以瞭解問題的本質及形成機轉，而能從不同層次解決問題。本課程大致分為兩個階段進行，首先是由社會科學甚至生物科學（例如sociobiology）來探索人類行為的本質；而後則以目前公共衛生領域被關注的一些行為領域或結構與政策的現象進行剖析，包括其成因與影響，並觸及公共衛生對這些相關行為現象所發展出介入的適切性。依循這樣的架構與脈絡，希望能讓同學瞭解人類行為的來龍去脈，以及我們對詮釋人類行為所發展出的基本架構。The purpose of this course is applying social and behavioral principles and theories on the phenomenon regarding health, disease, and environment. In academia, health behavior sciences and medical social sciences are often seen as a whole. However, in the recent decades, personal health is drew more attention in the aspects of diseases contract and population health, which makes the term “behavior” favorable and brings enthusiastic discussions and debates. As far as the depth and breadth within health domain, every issue is associated with behavior. Due to the complexity, we need to explore and examine health outcomes through different angles and approaches in order to comprehend the essential and determinants of health issues to further achieve effective solutions. This course contains two sections. First, we will start with reviewing the elements of human behavior through social sciences or even biological sciences (e.g., sociobiology). Second, with the understanding of behavioral basis, we will move on to episodes which are related to behavioral, structural, and policy fields as well as the causes and consequences in the contemporary public health to develop proper interventions. Within the structure and thread of the theoretical concepts, the course is expected to acquaint students with the history and progress of human behavior and the fundamental framework utilized to describe human behavior.