BIOSOCIAL MODELS OF DEMOGRAPHIC BEHAVIOR - AN INTRODUCTION

A workshop on biosocial models of demographic behavior was organized t o provide information to members of the Social Sciences and Population Study Section (SSP), the group entrusted by the National Institutes o f Health (NIH) with the responsibility for conducting the first level of peer review of demographic applications submitted to NIH for possib le funding. Some of the variables studies by demographers are biologic al, e.g., fertility, fecundity, morbidity, and mortality, so demograph ers are not unaware of biological variables. However, they tend to tre at biological variables as something to be explained by social, econom ic, and psychological factors rather than to be integrated into an exp lanatory paradigm. This workshop contains papers that focus upon vario us stages of the life cycle and explore the importance of biosocial va riables in explaining selected aspects of human behavior.