Kate Keenan is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist with degrees in affiliated subjects (B.Sc., M.Phil.) and a number of qualifications in others.

She founded Keenan Research, an industrial psychology consultancy, in 1978. The work of the consultancy is fundamentally concerned with helping people to achieve their potential and make a better job of their management.

By devising work programmes for companies she enables them to target and remedy their managerial problems - from personnel selection and individual assessment to team building and attitude surveys. She believes in giving priority to training the managers to institute their own programmes, so that their company resources are developed and expanded.

She enjoys detecting behavioural clues but admits that it is not always easy to understand what they signify. She never fails to be surprised by the diversity and range of human behaviour in its many and unexpected manifestations. She even surprises herself about her own.

This guide to Understanding Behavior shows how to interpret behavior and explains the underlying reasons for people behaving the way they do.
When you have read this book: you will know what governs basic behavior; will have the ability to cope with and accommodate difficult behavior; will become more skilled at understanding people.

People watching
Understanding human behaviour is an infinitely enriching activity. To do it well you need to observe people carefully and take into account the many causes which can affect how people behave. You also need to separate behaviour from personality.

Root causes
Knowing more about the origins of behaviour allows you to understand that when people do not behave like themselves there is probably a very good reason, and that when they do not behave like you, they are simply behaving like themselves.

Do unto others ...
... your own behaviour has a much greater influence on everyone else than you may have ever understood, and it is this which can often induce others to behave as they do.

Co-dependency
The desire to help people with deep-seated needs can be so strong that you may find yourself endlessly trying to make up for the emotional deficiencies in their lives by trying to provide a continuous drip-feed of comfort and support.