A Study Of The Cost Of Social Procreation

Population problem is always the worldwide focus and the hot issue in both China and the western countries. The research on determinants to population problem from macroscopical perspective and the research on family determination on child-bearing from microscopical have provided multiple visual angles for us. However, the lack of linking between the macroscopical and microscopical research, especially from socio-psychological visual point, still exists. The social network, interaction theory and culture diffusion theory brought forward by the school of sociology and the individual-society motivation theory by the school of socio-psychology attempted to link macroscopical research with microscopical research, but that did not explain the root and the path of social network interaction and cultural diffusion.In my study, I try to seek the relationship between the convergence behavior of procreation decision and the amount of population from the visual angle of the convergence theory or imitation theory of socio-psychology. Professor Li Jianmin has raised the concept of the cost of social procreation in his article, which offers me the basic concept and the research opportunity.The dissertation consists of six chapters besides introduction and conclusion. In Chapter 1, a review of the worldwide research on the cost of procreation is first involved. It is divided into three sections. Section 1 is a historical review of the research, indicating the process of the study which combines the microscopical with the macroscopical, including three phases of the study, i.e., the family cost of procreation, the social cost of procreation and the cost of social procreation. Section 2 synthetically generalizes the research on procreation decision by the school of economics, sociology and socio-psychology,so as to find the influencing factors of the cost of social procreation. The third section evaluates the contribution and deficiency of the current study and points out the significance of my own study on the cost of social procreation.In Chapter 2, I first define the suitable population from three dimensions and expound the defining criterion. Then I define the cost of social procreation, referring to the negative effect of extra population which overruns the suitable population forthe society, basing on which I plot out the four parts of the cost of social procreation and expound the defining criterion.Chapter 3 analyses the theory and evidence of the determinants of the cost of social procreation. The first section supplies the analytic route of the cost of social procreation. The second section is a brief summary of convergence theory, which makes good preparation for the next sections. The third is the theoretical construction of convergence behavior of procreation, including the characteristics, the types and the influencing factors. The last section tests the demonstration of the theory, the result of which indicates that the social, familial and individual factors really influence the procreation convergence.On the basis of Chapter 3, corresponding measures are put forward in Chapter 4, 5 and 6. Chapter 4 first suggests the social measures for controlling the cost of social procreation. That means we must still insist on family-planning policy in order to control population. In Chapter 5, the familial measures are proposed to solve the problems of providing for the aged and improving the status of the female. Chapter 6 refers to the individual measures to adjust the division of social stratums, which will benefit the mobility of social stratums, thus we can create good individual condition for procreation convergence behavior.The main job of the study on the cost of social procreation is to explore the linking between the convergence behavior in the family decision of procreation and the population demand of the society. The research can help us find out the effective measures to control population, creating good social condition for people to adapt to the favorable procreation convergence behavior, thus to benefit the continuance of the social development.