
Evolution of Vulnerability
Implications for Sex Differences in Health and Development
Description
Key Features
- Describes evolved sex differences, providing predictions on the traits that will show sex-specific vulnerabilities
- Presents an extensive review of condition-dependent traits in non-human species, greatly expanding existing reviews published in scientific journals, and more critically, extending these to humans
- Applies condition-dependent traits to humans to identify children, adolescents, or populations at risk for poor long-term outcomes
Readership
Evolutionary psychologists, biologists, public health professionals (researchers and policy makers)
Table of Contents
- Dedication
- Preface
- Chapter 1: Vulnerability
- Abstract
- The Value Added by an Evolutionary Perspective
- Nonhuman Vulnerabilities
- Human Vulnerabilities
- Conclusion
- Chapter 2: Sexual Selection and the Evolution of Vulnerability
- Abstract
- Sexual Selection
- Expression of Condition-Dependent Traits
- Conclusion
- Chapter 3: Condition-Dependent Traits in Birds and Fish
- Abstract
- Birds
- Fish
- Conclusion
- Chapter 4: Condition-Dependent Traits in Arthropods and Mammals
- Abstract
- Arthropods
- Mammals
- Conclusion
- Chapter 5: Sexual Selection and Human Vulnerability
- Abstract
- Vulnerability in Boys and Men
- Vulnerability in Girls and Women
- Conclusion
- Chapter 6: Human Vulnerability for Physical and Behavioral Traits
- Abstract
- Physical Vulnerabilities
- Behavioral Vulnerabilities
- Conclusion
- Chapter 7: Human Vulnerability for Brain and Cognitive Traits
- Abstract
- Cognitive Vulnerabilities
- Brain vulnerabilities
- Conclusion
- Chapter 8: Implications for Human Health and Development
- Abstract
- Defining and Assessing Well-being and Vulnerability
- Defining Stressors
- Conclusion
- References
- Species Index for Tables
- Author Index
- Subject Index
Product details
- No. of pages: 444
- Language: English
- Copyright: © Academic Press 2015
- Published: July 28, 2015
- Imprint: Academic Press
- Paperback ISBN: 9780128015629
- eBook ISBN: 9780128017470
About the Author
David Geary

David C. Geary is a cognitive developmental and evolutionary psychologist at the University of Missouri. He has wide ranging interests but his primary areas of research and scholarly work are children’s mathematical cognition and learning and Darwin’s sexual selection as largely but not solely related to human sex differences.
Professor Geary directed a 10-year longitudinal study of children’s mathematical development from kindergarten to ninth grade, with a focus on identifying the core deficits underlying learning disabilities and persistent low achievement in mathematics. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (US), including through a MERIT award to professor Geary. One result has been the identification of the school-entry number knowledge that predicts economically-relevant mathematical competencies in adolescence. As a follow-up, professor Geary is directing a second longitudinal study, funded by the National Science Foundation (US), to identify the preschool quantitative competencies that predict this school-entry number knowledge. Professor Geary has also published conceptual and theoretical articles on individual differences in children’s mathematical learning, as well as a book published by the American Psychological Association, Children’s mathematical development (1994); recently translated into Korean. Professor Geary has also contributed to applied and policy related work on this topic, serving, for instance, on the President’s National Mathematics Advisory Panel, and chairing it’s learning processes task group.
Professor Geary’s interests in evolution are reflected in two of his other books published by the American Psychological Association, The origin of mind: Evolution of brain, cognition, and general intelligence (2005), and Male, female: The evolution of human sex differences (1998, 2010 second edition). The corresponding empirical work ranges from the study of changes in brain volume during hominid evolution to human mate choices to hormonal responses to simulated (video game) competition. Professor Geary’s current interests in this area follow from several of his collaborative studies on the effects of prenatal toxin exposure on sex differences in cognition and behavior in mice. Specifically, traits related to Darwin’s sexual selection are often exaggerated relative to other traits. These would include, for example, the bright plumage of the males of many species of bird that in turn is a good indicator of their behavioral and genetic health. These traits are particularly sensitive to environmental disruption, even in healthy individuals. Professor Geary’s in progress book, The evolution of vulnerability, is focused on these traits in humans and how they can be used to identify at-risk populations and individuals.