This paper examines whether a morally developed person is one who feels strongly about moral issues, or understands moral issues, or acts ethically when dealing with other people. It argues that the meaning of the term "moral" is concerned with how people ought to treat each other and that studies in morality should deal with the actions of people as they function within groups. The trend in gifted education to focus on the individual's affective state when discussing moral development, such as a passion for justice, or to measure cognitive development, such as the recognition of universal moral principles, is deemed as overly individualistic and conceptually inadequate. The paper outlines Lawrence Kohlberg's six stages of moral judgment: punishment and obedience, individual instrumental purpose and exchange, mutual interpersonal expectations, relationships, and conformity, social system and conscience maintenance, prior rights and social contract or utility, and universal ethical principles. It points out that Kohlberg's research examines what people think, not how people actually behave. Developing and applying a methodology to make observations of moral actions is discussed, along with contrasting paradigms of moral development. (Contains 17 references.) (CR)