Nancy Bayley
American developmental psychologist
American developmental psychologist who directed the Berkeley Growth Study and created the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. In 1966 she was the first woman to receive the APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award.
Why this person matters
Bayley followed children from infancy into adulthood and standardised scales for infant mental and motor development. Her growth data also fed tables for predicting adult height. She concluded that intelligence results from heredity and environment interacting throughout development.
Main contributions
Berkeley Growth Study
Begun in 1928, the study aimed to set standards for physical and behavioural development. It started with 61 children and had 42 by 1941, mainly because families moved away. Bayley became its director in 1931.
Bayley Scales of Infant Development
She revised and standardised scales of infant mental and motor development. Sources date the published scales between 1964 and 1969; Feminist Voices gives 1966.
Intelligence across childhood
She found that intelligence scores vary across childhood and concluded that intelligence results from heredity and environment interacting, which makes prediction from early scores difficult.
Context and limits
The Berkeley sample was small and shrank over time. Sources disagree on when the infant scales were published. The sources read do not evaluate how well infant scores predict later intelligence, beyond her own conclusion that prediction is difficult.
In your introductory course
Lifespan development.She appears in development chapters for longitudinal research and infant assessment, which students meet through the Bayley scales.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 9.1. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1926
She received her PhD at the University of Iowa.
- 1928
She joined the Institute of Child Welfare at Berkeley, and the Berkeley Growth Study began.
- 1931
She became director of the Berkeley Growth Study.
- 1966
She received the APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, the first woman to do so.
Sources
- Psychology's Feminist Voices, Nancy BayleyArchive or museum. Institutional biography inspected.
- Wikipedia, Nancy BayleyReference work. Reference article inspected.