GEARY, David C(yril) 1957-

PERSONAL: Born June 7, 1957, in Providence, RI; married; children: two. Education: University of Santa Clara, B.S., 1979; California State University at Hayward, M.S., 1981; University of California at Riverside, M.A., 1984, Ph.D., 1986.

ADDRESSES: Home—1813 Emerald Court, Columbia, MO 65203. Office—c/o Department of Psychological Sciences, 210 McAlester Hall, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211-2500; fax: 573-882-7710. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Educator and author. University of Texas, El Paso, visiting assistant professor of psychology, 1986-87; University of Missouri at Rolla, assistant professor of psychology, 1987-89; University of Missouri at Columbia, assistant professor, 1989-93, associate professor, 1993-96, professor of psychological sciences, 1996—, director of experimental training committee, 1991-94, adjunct associate professor of anthropology, 1994—, director of developmental training committee, 1999-2002, Frederick A. Middlebush Professor of Psychological Sciences, 2000-03, chair of department, 2002—. Member of editorial board or consulting editor for Developmental Psychology, 1996, Journal of Education Psychology, 1996-2002, Child Development, 1997-2002, Contemporary Educational Psychology, 2000—, Journal of Learning Disabilities, 2001-04, and Evolutionary Psychology, 2001—. Member of numerous grant review panels and peer review boards.

MEMBER: National Academy of Neuropsychologists (associate member, 1984-87), American Psychological Society, Psychonomic Society, Human Behavior and Evolution Society.

AWARDS, HONORS: Award for Excellence for Research on Intelligence, MENSA Education and Research Foundation, 1992; Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Faculty Research and Creative Activity in the Behavioral and Social Sciences, University of Missouri, 1996; nominee, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences; fellow, American Psychological Society; honorable mention, Best Science Books of the 1990s, Lingua Franca, for Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences; Scientific Merit Award, National Institutes of Health.

WRITINGS:

Children's Mathematical Development: Research and Practical Applications, American Psychological Association (Washington, DC), 1994.

Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences, American Psychological Association (Washington, DC), 1998.

The Origin of the Mind: Evolution of Brain, Cognition, and General Intelligence, American Psychological Association (Washington, DC), 2005.

Contributor to journals, including Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Psychological Science, Learning and Individual Differences, Contemporary Education Psychology, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Journal of Educational Psychology, Psychological Bulletin, Quarterly Review of Biology, Psychological Research, Human Nature, and Developmental Review. Contributor to Mathematics Framework for California Public Schools: Kindergarten through Grade Twelve.

SIDELIGHTS: Developmental psychologist David C. Geary is the author of three books dealing with topics ranging from the development of a child's mathematical abilities to the evolution of sex differences in the human male and female and the origin of the brain and cognition. In his 1998 title, Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences, Geary sets out to test the ideas of Darwinian evolution as witnessed in sexual selection. According to Brian Charlesworth, writing in the Quarterly Review of Biology, Geary's study is "a detailed presentation of the idea that there are real differences in mentality as well as physique among men and women." Charlesworth went on to note that "these differences are not merely cultural, but reflect a long history of sex differences in the pressure of selection on the ability to acquire and retain mates." Michael C. Seto, writing in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, found that Geary's book "is important reading for anyone interested in understanding sex differences." For Seto, "the writing is entertaining and lucid, and Geary demonstrates a strong grasp of the relevant biological, psychological, and anthropological literatures." Paul Okami, reviewing Male, Female in the Journal of Sex Research, observed that "the most important accomplishment of [the book] is not its massively comprehensive look at evidence of sex differences in human and nonhuman animals but its serious attempt to integrate analyses of phylogeny (ultimate evolutionary history) with ontogeny (developmental mechanisms and approximate mediating variables)." Okami further thought that Geary's work "is undoubtedly the finest scholarly work to date reviewing theory and research findings on sex differences."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Archives of Sexual Behavior, Volume 30, number 1, 2001, Michael C. Seto, review of Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences, p. 83.

Journal of Sex Research, Volume 38, number 1, 2001, Paul Okami, review of Male, Female, p. 78.

Quarterly Review of Biology, Volume 75, number 1, 2000, Brian Charlesworth, review of Male, Female, p. 89.

online

Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri-Columbia Web site, http://web.missouri.edu/~psycorie/ (September 30, 2004), "David C. Geary."