The Difference between the Sexes - From Biology to Behaviour

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David Geary

University of Missouri-Columbia, USA

Biography

Dr. David C. Geary received a B.S. in psychology from Santa Clara University, an M.S. in child clinical/school psychology from California State University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of California, Riverside. Upon completion of his Ph.D. in 1986, he held faculty positions at the University of Texas at El Paso and the University of Missouri, first at the Rolla campus and then in Columbia. Dr. Geary served as chair of his department from 2002 to 2005 and as the University of Missouri’s Middlebush Professor of Psychological Sciences from 2000 to 2003. He is currently a Curators’ and Thomas Jefferson Professor. He has published nearly 200 articles, commentaries, and chapters across a wide range of topics, including three sole-authored books; Children's mathematical development, Male, female: The evolution of human sex differences (now in second edition, 2010), and The origin of mind: Evolution of brain, cognition, and general intelligence as well as one co-authored book, Sex differences: Summarizing more than a century of scientific research. He served as a member of the President’s National (U.S.) Mathematics Advisory Panel and Chaired the Learning Processes subcommittee, is a recipient of a MERIT award from the National Institutes of Health, and was appointed by President G. W. Bush to the National Board of Directors for the Institute for Education Sciences. His current sex differences research include study of the relation between circulating hormones and intrasexual competition in men and women, and the study of prenatal exposure to endocrine disruptors on spatial cognition and male-male aggression in mice.

Abstract

Evolution and Cultural Expression of Human Sex Differences

Darwin’s (1871) principles of sexual selection involve two key elements –competition among members of the same sex for mates (intrasexual competition) and discriminating choice of mating partners (intersexual choice). The ways in which competition and choice are expressed in nonhuman species provides a means for us to examine these processes in our own species. The different ways in which men and women compete for mates and the trade-offs they make when choosing them will be compared and contrasted with that of other species. Despite similarities, humans differ from other species because cultural norms and rules influence how competition and choice can be expressed. This cross-cultural variation and the social conditions and cultural rules that influence this variation will be highlighted and placed within the broader perspective of sexual selection.