Women in Science and Engineering at Yale (2020 Edition)

Louise Bates Ames (1908–1996), Ph.D.

Photo: Gesell Institute of Child Development

Louis Bates Ames received her MA in psychology from the University of Maine and joined the Yale Clinic of Child Development where she was active from 1933–1950. She earned her Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology in 1936 from Yale University. She collaborated with Dr. Arnold Gesell, Director of the Clinic of Child Development where the focus was on the biological approach to child development.  When she retired, she co-founded, with colleagues Frances L. Ilg and Janet Learned Rodell, the Gesell Institute of Child Development. She, with others, published a study changing the single interpretation of the Rorschach test.