The correct answer to this open question is the following.
Jyoti buys her textbooks for the term from the bookstore. When she gets home, she checks the receipt and realizes that the cashier didn’t scan one of the books, so she got it for free! "I just hope I don’t get caught. I’d be punished for sure," she says. Kohlberg would most likely classify Jyoti as being at the preconventional level of moral reasoning.
According to Kohlberg's research, the preconventional level of his Stages of Moral Development means that the individual seriously considers to bey authority due to the consequences or repercussions of its decisions and behavior. This represents the "punishing orientation" or the first stage. The individual's decision is based on the idea of avoiding any kind of punishment.
