Final answer:
A child avoiding drawing on walls to avoid punishment is at the preconventional level of moral development, where actions are based on avoiding negative consequences.
Step-by-step explanation:
If a child's primary reason for not drawing pictures on the living room wall with crayons is to avoid the punishment that would inevitably follow this behavior, the child would be said to be at the preconventional level of moral development. This level is associated with Lawrence Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development and characterizes the morality stage where behavior is influenced by the consequences of the action, specifically by considering pain and pleasure or punishment and reward.
According to Kohlberg, individuals at the preconventional level lack a higher level of cognitive ability to see beyond the immediate physical consequences of their actions. As they mature, they may advance to the conventional level where social rules and laws are taken into account, and eventually, some reach the postconventional level, where abstract reasoning is used to determine morality.