<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article is written like a personal reflection or opinion essay that states a Wikipedia editor's personal feelings about a topic . Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style . (July 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> Moral Development focuses on the emergence, change, and understanding of morality from infancy through adulthood . Morality develops across a lifetime and is influenced by an individual's experiences and their behavior when faced with moral issues through different periods' physical and cognitive development . In short, morality concerns an individual's growing sense of what is right and wrong; it is for this reason that young children have different moral judgement and character than that of a grown adult . Morality in itself is often a synonym for "rightness" or "goodness". It refers to a certain code of conduct that is derived from one's culture, religion or personal philosophy that guides one's actions, behaviors and thoughts . </P> <P> Notions of morality development have been developed over centuries, the earliest came from philosophers like Confucius, Aristotle, and Rousseau, who all took a more humanist perspective and focused on the development of the conscience and sense of virtue . In the modern day, empirical research has explored morality through a moral psychology lens by theorists like Sigmund Freud and its relation to cognitive development by theorists like Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, B.F. Skinner, Carol Gilligan and Judith Smetana . </P> <P> The interest in morality spans many disciplines (e.g., philosophy, economics, biology, and political science) and specializations within psychology (e.g., social, cognitive, and cultural). In order to investigate how individuals understand morality, it is essential to consider their beliefs, emotions, attitudes, and behaviors that contribute to their moral understanding . Additionally, researchers in the field of moral development consider the role of peers and parents in facilitating moral development, the role of conscience and values, socialization and cultural influences, empathy and altruism, and positive development, in order to understand what factors impact morality of an individual more completely . </P>

Moral philosophy is learned through the process of or influenced by