Conversely, normative approaches "focus on moral obligations such as standards of personal morality, moral development, social influences such as peer opinion and influence, and perceived legitimacy of laws implemented by authorities such as procedural fairness" (Kahler and Gore 2012, p. 105).
In a study investigating the effect of ethics education on physician morality it was concluded that moral development and ethical confidence were unaffected by ethics education [ 18].
The six stages of moral development are grouped into three levels: pre-conventional morality, conventional morality, and post-conventional morality.
Morality means somewhat different things to different people, but researchers who study moral development define it as a triad of emotions, thoughts and actions.
Constituted by a distinctive set of framing concepts and a distinctive set of reflective skills, the morality of care is not translatable into the morality of justice that Gilligan's predecessors had taken to be the gauge of moral development.
Bosanquet's emphasis on the moral development of the human individual and on limiting the state from directly promoting morality clearly reflects a Kantian influence.
Kohlberg followed the development of moral judgment far beyond the ages studied earlier by Piaget, who also claimed that logic and morality develop through constructive stages.
Progress from mechanical to organic solidarity is based first on population growth and increasing population density, second on increasing "morality density" (development of more complex social interactions) and thirdly, on the increasing specialisation in workplace.
"These findings," the paper explains, "suggest that fearlessness in preschool constitutes a clear risk factor for developmental pathways that lead to problems in morality, conscience development, and severe antisocial behaviors".
Although the plots were stereotyped and the abstract characters allowed little scope for development, morality plays achieved considerable sophistication they were intended for an educated, middle-class audience and moved a long way toward secularization, thus forming a significant link between the medieval and the modern theatres.
