This paper studies the stability characteristics of small sized dc power networks with constant power loads being connected to the network. With the increased application of dc distributed power systems and active loads, maintaining stability in dc power networks with high usage of constant power load has become an important issue. Motivated by the fact that small sized dc systems would have difficulties with accommodating stability improvement methods that require installation of additional components, this paper performs stability analysis and explores application of virtual resistance based approaches for stability improvement in dc power systems. The performance of the studied control approaches is also verified and the characteristics of the considered approaches are also studied.