Affective Characteristics: Their Conceptual Definitions

Abstract

During the 1960s the cognitive domain continued to receive much attention as proponents and critics argued the merits and evils of behavioral objectives, often utilizing the framework for the cognitive domain suggested in the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook I (Bloom, 1956). In 1964 the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook II: The Affective Domain (Krathwohl et al., 1964) was published but received little attention in light of the debate over behavior objectives and the apparent national consensus that the primary aims of schooling were in the cognitive domain. In his article “Assessing Educational Achievement in the Affective Domain,” Tyler (1973) discussed the growing awareness in the late 1960s and early 1970s of the need for schools to attend to the affective domain when developing their learning goals and objectives.