Catherine Raeff is Professor of Psychology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Her publications include the books Always Separate, Always Connected: Independence and Interdependence in Cultural Contexts of Development and Exploring the Dynamics of Human Development: An Integrative Approach.

"Human action is famously anything but simple, a situation made abundantly clear by Raeff in this ambitious, scholarly, and introspective work... Worth remarking are two chapters in part 3 delivering, arguably, the core of Raeff's message: "Evidence and Research Implications" (chapter 11), and "Complex and Empathic Understanding" (the final chapter, 13). These chapters alone should entice the philosophically inclined to explore this interesting work, a must-read for scholars of action theory and research." -- R. E. Osborne, CHOICE

"In this book, Catherine Raeff extends recent attention to human action by offering a conceptualization of action based on systems theory. This book is a substantial addition to the field of action theory and research in psychology. Raeff engages readers in a dialogue between the complexity of human functioning, traditional theory in psychology, and the applications of action theory. This book holds considerable promise for future work in this field and in psychology generally by pushing the boundaries of theory and accommodating for the intricacies and complications of human life." -- Richard Young, Myrne B. Nevison Professorship in Counseling Psychology, the University of British Columbia

"This book is a masterpiece of insight and erudition. It makes an invaluable and unique contribution to the literature of developmental science, and it will rapidly be regarded as a classic contribution." -- Richard Lerner, Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science, and Director, Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development, Tufts University