Michael Lewis, Ph.D.

Dr. Michael Lewis is director of the Institute for the Study of Child Development, a research center in the Department of Pediatrics at UMDNJ(University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey) - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Under Dr. Lewis’ direction, the Institute engages in both basic research, and development of  interventions for use with children who have special needs. He also has faculty appointments at Rutgers University.

Dr. Lewis may be most noted for his influential views on infant emotional development – that objective self-awareness precedes consciousness of even basic emotional experiences (to be distinguished from emotional states which apparently lack the quality of self-reference). Accorning to this view, until infants have developed the capacity to form and hold mental representations of self and others, and reflect on these relationships, infants' emotions cannot be characterized as conscious. 

Dr. Lewis is also well-known for his views on the role of the environment in fostering children’s healthy development, and that aversive experiences during the first few years of life do not set young children on an inalterable course toward future psychopathology.

Most-cited publication (book) (108 citations):

Shame: The Exposed Self (1992).

Most cited article (55 citations):

Stanger, C., & Lewis, M. (1993). Agreement among parents, teachers and children on internalizing and

          externalizing behavior problems.  Journal of Child Clinical Psychology, 22, 107-116.

Most cited article relavent to our discussions (48 citations):

Lewis, M., Sullivan, M.W., Stanger, C., & Weiss, M. (1989). Self development and self-conscious emotions.  

          Child Development, 60, 145-156.