Evolutionary Perspectives on Infancy

This unique volume is one of the first of its kind to examine infancy through an evolutionary lens, identifying infancy as a discrete stage during which particular types of adaptations arose as a consequence of certain environmental pressures. Infancy is a crucial time period in psychological development, and evolutionary psychologists are increasingly recognizing that natural selection has operated on all stages of development, not just adulthood. The volume addresses this crucial change in perspective by highlighting research across diverse disciplines including developmental psychology, evolutionary developmental psychology, anthropology, sociology, nutrition, and primatology. Chapters are grouped into four sections:

1. Theoretical Underpinnings
2. Brain and Cognitive Development
3. Social/Emotional Development
4. Life and Death

Evolutionary Perspectives on Infancy sheds new light on our understanding of the human brain andthe environments responsible for shaping the brain during early stages of development. This book will be of interest to evolutionary psychologists and developmental psychologists, biologists, and anthropologists, as well as scholars more broadly interested in infancy.

• brain development
• developmental psychology
• evolutionary developmental psychology
• evolutionary psychology
• social cognition and development
• cognitive development
• environment of evolutionary adaptedness
• language acquisition
• maternal caregiving
• infancy
• moral cognition
• predictive adaptive responses
• prenatal development
• social cognition and development
• plasticity
• nursing

• Department of Human Development & Family Studies, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, USA

  Sybil L. Hart

• Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, USA

  David F. Bjorklund

Sybil L. Hart holds the position of Professor Emerita at Texas Tech University.  Her books include Preventing Sibling Rivalry (Simon & Schuster), Handbook of Jealousy Jealousy: Theory, Research, and Multidisciplinary Approaches (Wiley-Blackwell), Infant Jealousy: Responses to Differential Treatment (Springer), and The Psychology of Rivalry (Nova).  She has been the recipient of numerous awards from Texas Tech University, including the Chancellor’s Council Award for Distinguished Research, the Presidential Book Award, and the Barnie E. Rushing, Jr. Faculty Distinguished Research Award, as well as grant support from the National Institutes of Health. Her research on jealousy in infants has also attracted press coverage in national and international outlets such as Newsweek, Der Spiegel, and the NBC Today show.  Her current research interests focus on the role of exclusivity in intimate relationships and lactation. 

• B.Ed. (Education), 1978, McGillUniversity, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• M.A. (Educational Psychology), McGill University, Montreal, Quebec Canada
• Ph.D. (Experimental Psychology), 1995, Tufts University, Boston, MA

David F. Bjorklund is a Professor of Psychology at Florida Atlantic University where teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in developmental and evolutionary psychology. He served as Associate Editor of Child Development (1997-2001) and is currently serving as Editor of the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology (since 2007). His books include The Origins of Human Nature: Evolutionary Developmental Psychology (with Anthony Pellegrini); Origins of the Social Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and Child Development (edited with Bruce Ellis); Why Youth is Not Wasted on the Young: Immaturity in Human Development; Child and Adolescent Development: An Integrative Approach (with Carlos Hernández Blasi); Psychology (with Peter Gray), and Children's Thinking: Cognitive Development and Individual Differences, now in its sixth edition. His current research interests include children's cognitive development and evolutionary developmental psychology.

• B.A. (Psychology), 1971, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
• M.A. (Psychology), 1973, University of Dayton                         
• Ph.D. (Developmental Psychology), 1976, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Honorary Doctorate (Doctor philosophiae honoris causa), University of Bern, Switzerland, 2015

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