ASSESSMENT IN THE AFFECTIVE DOMAIN

The affective domain is part of a system that was published in 1965 for identifying,
understanding and addressing how people learn. In the Bloom‟s taxonomy published in 1965,
three domains were identified: cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains. In this lesson, we
shall be concerned with the second of these domains which is the affective domain.
Unlike the cognitive domain which emphasizes measurements of reasoning and the
mental faculties of the student, the affective domain describes learning objectives that emphasize
a feeling tone, an emotion, or a degree of acceptance or rejection. It is, admittedly, a far more
difficult domain to objectively analyze and assess since affective objectives vary from simple
attention to selected phenomena to complex but internally consistent qualities of character and
conscience. Nevertheless, much of the educative process needs to deal with assessment and
measurement of students‟ abilities in this domain. For instance, it is often heard that
certain people are “schooled” but not “educated”. This cliché‟ simply refers to the fact that
much of the processes in education today are aimed at developing the cognitive aspects of
development and very little or no time is spent on the development of the affective domain. The
development of the psychomotor domain is also an important consideration in education.
However, due to space and time limitations, this book shall not cover the appropriate
measurement and evaluation techniques in the psychomotor domain. The interested reader,
however, is referred to the list of references given at the end of this chapter for more information.
We shall first discuss the taxonomy developed in the affective domain as a starting point
of our discussions on measurement and evaluation in this particular educational domain of
interest.
1. The Taxonomy in the Affective Domain
The taxonomy in the affective domain contains a large number of objectives in the literature
expressed as interests, attitudes, appreciations, values, and emotional sets or biases. (Krathwohl
et a1, 1964). The descriptions of each step in the taxonomy culled from Kratwohl‟s Taxonomy
of Affective Domain (1964) are given as follows:
Receiving is being aware of or sensitive to the existence of certain ideas, material, or
phenomena and being willing to tolerate them. Examples include: to differentiate, to accept, to
listen (for), to respond to.
Responding is committed in some small measure to the ideas, materials, or phenomena
involved by actively responding to them. Examples are: to comply with, to follow, to commend,
to volunteer, to spend leisure time in, to acclaim.
Valuing is willing to be perceived by others as attaching importance to certain ideas,
materials, or phenomena. Examples include: to increase measured proficiency in, to relinquish,
to subsidize, to support, to debate.
Organization is relating the value to those already held and bring it into a harmonious and
internally consistent philosophy. Examples are: to discuss, to theorize, to formulate, to balance,
to examine.
Characterization by value or value set is to act consistently in accordance with the values
he or she has internalized. Examples include: to revise, to require, to be rated high in the value,
to avoid, to resist, to manage, to resolve.
 If we are desirous to apply the continuum of Krathwohl et al. to our teaching, then we are
encouraging students to not just receive information at the bottom of the affective hierarchy.
Instead, as teachers, we would like them to respond to what they learn, to value it, to organize it
and maybe even to characterize themselves as environmentalists, geology majors or earth
scientists. Notice that in these science subjects, for instance, it is important also to mention and
perhaps study the biographies of great scientists since these serve as inspiration for them to
emulate the way that great scientists have led simple lives and devoted their talents to the cause
of science.
We are also interested in students‟ attitudes toward science, scientists, and science
and specific science topics. We want to find teaching methods that encourage students and draw
them in. Affective topics in educational literature include attitudes, motivation, communication
styles, classroom management styles, learning styles, use of technology in the classroom and
nonverbal communication, interests, predisposition and self-efficacy. As teachers, we need to be
careful about our own actions that may negatively impact on students‟ attitudes which go straight
into the affective domain. For instance, facial expressions that reveal sarcasm, body movements
that betray distrust and dislike, should all be avoided.
The affective domain is the least studied and most often overlooked domain in educational
literature despite the fact that almost every researcher or author begins with a premise on the
importance of the affective domain in the teaching-learning process. The reason, perhaps, is the
fact that the affective domain is the most nebulous and the hardest to evaluate among Bloom‟s
three domains. Traditional assessment procedures, for instance, concentrate on the cognitive
aspects of learning and as teachers majority of us typically focus our efforts on the development
of tests and instruments for measuring cognitive learning. However, it is important to realize that
by tapping the potentials of the affective domain in enhancing learning, we increase the
likelihood of real and authentic learning among our students. Similarly, students may experience
affective roadblocks to learning that can neither be recognized nor solved when using a purely
cognitive approach.
2. Affective Learning Competencies
Affective desired learning competencies are often stated in the form of instructional
objectives. What then are instructional objectives?
 Instructional objectives are specific, measurable, short-term, observable student
behaviors.
 Objectives are the foundation upon which you can build lessons and assessments that
you can prove meet your overall course or lesson goals.
 Think of objectives as tools you use to make sure you reach your goals. They are the
arrows you shoot towards your target (goal).
 The purpose of objectives is not to restrict spontaneity or constraint the vision of
education in the discipline; but to ensure that learning is focused clearly enough that
both students and teacher know what is going on, and so learning can be objectively
measured. Different archers have different styles, so do different teachers. Thus, you
can shoot your arrows (objectives) in many ways. The important thing is that they
reach your target (goals) and score that bulls-eye!
We have reproduced the taxonomy of educational objectives in the affective domain as
adopted from Krathwohl. Each level of the affective domain is given a description and an
example of an appropriate objective or learning competency is provided. Notice that it is far
more difficult to state an objective in the affective domain because they often refer to feelings
and internal processes of the mind and body that cannot be tested and measured using traditional
methods. We also mention in passing that we assess and measure the affective domain in schools
but such measurements will not be used to grade students on this domain.
Level Definition Example
Receiving Being aware of or attending to Individual would read a book
something in the environment passage about civil rights
Responding Showing some new behavior as a Individual would answer questions
result of experience about the book, read another book
by the same author, another book
about civil rights, etc.
Valuing Showing some definite involvement or The individual might demonstrate
commitment this by voluntarily attending a
lecture on civil rights.
Organization Integrating a new value into one‟s The individual might arrange a
general set of values, giving it some civil rights rally.
ranking among one‟s general priorities
Characterization Acting consistently with the new value The individual is firmly committed
by Value to the value, perhaps becoming a
civil rights leader.
Figure 1 -The Taxonomy in the Affective Domain
Adapted from: Krathwohl, D., Bloom, B., & Masia, B. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Handbook II:
Affective domain. New York: David McKay.

Likewise, we provide some examples of verbs or behavioral terms that can be used to
express learning competencies or objectives in the affective domain. We cannot stress enough
the importance of using behavioral terms in specifying our learning competencies. Behavioral
terms tend to simplify the assessment and measurement methodologies that are suggested in this
textbook. Behavioral objectives focus on observable behaviors which can then be easily
translated in quantitative terms.

Receiving Responding Valuing Organization Characterization

 Accept  Complete  Accept  Codify  Internalize
 Attend  Comply  Defend  Discriminate  Verify
 Develop  Cooperate  Devote  Display
 Recognize  Discuss  Pursue  Order
 Examine  Seek  Organize
 Obey  Systematize
 Respond  Weigh
Figure 2 - Behavioral Verbs Appropriate for the Affective Domain
 In the affective domain, and in particular, when we consider learning competencies, we
also consider the following focal concepts:
Attitudes. Attitudes are defined as a mental predisposition to act that is expressed by
evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor. Individuals generally have
attitudes that focus on objects, people or institutions. Attitudes are also attached to mental
categories. Mental orientations towards concepts are generally referred to as values. Attitudes are
comprised of four components:
A. Cognitions - Cognitions are our beliefs, theories, expectancies, cause-and-effect
beliefs, and perceptions relative to the focal object. This concept is not the same as
“feelings” but just a statement of beliefs and expectations which vary from one
individual to the next.
B. Affect - The affective component refers to our feeling with respect to the focal object
such as fear, liking, or anger. For instance, the color “blue” evokes different feelings
for different individuals: some like the color blue but others do not. Some associate
the color blue with “loneliness” while others associate it with “calm and peace”.
C. Behavioral Intentions - Behavioral intentions are our goals, aspirations, and our
expected responses to the attitude object.
D. Evaluation - Evaluations are often considered the central component of attitudes.
Evaluations consist of the imputation of some degree of goodness or badness to an
attitude object. When we speak of a positive or negative attitude toward an object, we
are referring to the evaluative component. Evaluations are a function of cognitive,
affect and behavioral intentions of the object. It is most often the evaluation that is
stored in memory, often without the corresponding cognitions and affect that were
responsible for its formation (Robert Scholl, University of Rhode Island, 2002).
Why study attitudes? Obviously, attitudes can influence the way we act and think in the
social communities we belong. They can function as frameworks and references for forming
conclusions and interpreting or acting for or against an individual; individuals, a concept or an
idea. For instance, think about your attitudes toward “drinking alcoholic beverages” or
“gambling” or “going on an all-night bar hopping spree every night”. Or, perhaps, think about
your attitude towards “mathematics and mathematical equations”. Do these attitudes shape the
way you think and correspondingly act? What is your response? How is your response informed
by each of these attitudes?
Several studies in the past, for instance, concluded that poor performance in school
mathematics cannot be strictly attributable to differential mental abilities but to the
students‟ attitudes toward the subject. When mathematics classes are recited, students with
negative attitude towards mathematics tend to pay less attention and occupy their minds with
something else. Thus, attitudes may influence behavior. People will behave in ways consistent
with their attitudes.
Motivation. Motivation is a reason or set or reasons for engaging in a particular behavior,
especially human behavior as studied in psychology and neuropsychology. The reasons may
include basic needs (e.g., food, water, shelter) or an object, goal, state of being, or ideal that is
desirable, which may or may not be viewed as “positive,” such as seeking a state of being in
which pain is absent. The motivation for a behavior may also be attributed to less-apparent
reasons such as altruism or morality. According to Geen (1995), motivation refers to the
initiation, direction, intensity and persistence of human behavior. There are many theories that
explain human motivation. The need theory is one of these theories. Abraham Maslow‟s
hierarchy of human needs theory is the most widely discussed theory of motivation. The theory
can be summarized as follows:
 Human beings have wants and desires which influence their behavior; only unsatisfied
needs can influence behavior, satisfied needs cannot.
 Since needs are many, they are arranged in order of importance, from the basic to the
complex.
 The person advances to the next level of needs only after the lower level need is at
least minimally satisfied.
 The further the progress up the hierarchy, the more individuality, humanness and
psychological health a person will show.
The needs, listed from basic (lowest, earliest) to most complex (highest, latest) are as
follows:
 Physiological: food, clothing, shelter
 Safety and security: home and family
 Social: being in a community
 Self-esteem: self-understanding, self-acceptance
 Self-actualization: recognition, achievement
Herzberg‟s two factor theory is another need theory of motivation. Frederick Herzberg‟s
two factor theory, concludes that certain factors in the workplace result in job satisfaction, while
others do not, but if absent lead to dissatisfaction. He distinguished between:
 Motivators; (e.g. challenging work, recognition, responsibility) which give positive
satisfaction, and
 Hygiene factors; (e.g. status, job security, salary and fringe benefits) which do not
motivate if present, but if absent will result in demotivation.
The name hygiene factors is used because, like hygiene, the presence Will make you
healthier, but absence can cause health deterioration.
The theory is sometimes called the “Motivator-Hygiene Theory.” From a practical point of
view (vs academic) Herzberg‟s two factor theory was proven more powerful than Maslow‟s
since its concepts are simpler to understand. Steve Bicknell did considerable research into
Employee Engagement Data. In particular, the analysis of verbatim comments from over 50
companies it was found that there was a common theme between low hygiene - high motivator
and low Employee Engagement. Employees consistently recorded low scores against
management/leadership - Employees were optimistic about success but happy to complain about
leadership since their hygiene factors had not been addressed. Message - sort the hygiene, then
drive the motivation.
Finally, created by Clayton Alderfer, Maslow‟s hierarchy of needs was expanded, leading
to his ERG theory (existence, relatedness and growth). Physiological and safety, the lower order
needs, are placed in the existence category while love and self-esteem needs in the relatedness
category. The growth category contained the self-actualization and self-esteem needs.
 Motivation is of particular interest to educational psychologists because of the crucial role
it plays in student learning. However, the specific kind of motivation that is studied in the
specialized setting of education differs qualitatively from the more general forms of motivation
studied by psychologists in other fields. Motivation in education can have several effects on how
students learn and their behavior towards subject matter (Ormrod, 2003). It can:
1. direct behavior toward particular goals.
2. lead to increased effort and energy.
3. increase initiation of, and persistence in, activities.
4. enhance cognitive processing.
5. determine what consequences are reinforcing.
6. lead to improved performance.
Because students are not always internally motivated, they sometimes need situated
motivation, which is found in environmental conditions that the teacher creates. There are two
kinds of motivation:
 Intrinsic motivation occurs when people are internally motivated to do something
because it either brings them pleasure, they think it is important, or they feel that what
they are learning is morally significant.
 Extrinsic motivation comes into play when a student is compelled to do something or
act a certain way because of factors external to him or her (like money or good
grades).
Finally, the last concept relates to self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is an impression that one is
capable of performing in a certain manner or attaining certain goals. It is a belief that one has the
capabilities to execute the courses of actions required to manage prospective situations. Unlike
efficacy, which is the power to produce an effect (in essence, competence), self-efficacy is the
belief (whether or not accurate) that one has the power to produce that effect.
It is important here to understand the distinction between self-esteem and self-efficacy.
Self-esteem relates to a person‟s sense of self-worth, whereas self-efficacy relates to a person‟s
perception of their ability to reach a goal. For example, say a person is a terrible rock climber.
He/she would likely have a poor self-efficacy in regard to rock climbing, but this wouldn‟t need
to affect his/her self-esteem; most people don‟t invest much of their self-esteem in this activity.
Research on learning has indicated that in certain circumstances, having less self-efficacy
for a subject may be helpful, while more negative attitudes towards how quickly/well one will
learn, can actually prove of benefit. One study uses the foreign language classroom to examine
students‟ beliefs about learning, perceptions of goal attainment, and motivation to
continue language study. (Christine Galbreath Jernigan, What do Students Expect to Learn? The
Role of Learner Expectancies, Beliefs, and Attributions for Success and Failure in Student
Motivation.) Survey and interview results indicated students‟ attributions for success and
failure and their expectations for certain subjects‟ learning ability played a role in the
relationship between goal attainment and volition. It appears that over-efficaciousness negatively
affected student motivation. For other students who felt they were “bad at languages,” their
negative beliefs increased their motivation to study.
3. Development of Assessment Tools
Assessment tools in the affective domain, in particular, those which are used to assess
attitudes, interests, motivations, and self-efficacy, have been developed. There are certain good
practices in developing these instruments. We consider a few of the standard assessment tools in
the affective domain.
Self-Report. Self-report is the most common measurement tool in the affective domain.
It essentially requires an individual to provide an account of his/her attitude or feelings toward a
concept or idea or people. Self-reports are also sometimes called “written reflections”. In using
this measurement tool, the teacher requires the students to write his/her thoughts on a subject
matter, like, “Why I Like or Dislike Mathematics”. The teacher ensures that the students write
something which would demonstrate the various levels of the taxonomy, e.g. lowest level of
receiving up to characterization.
Rating Scales. A rating scale is a set of categories designed to elicit information about a
quantitative attribute in social science. Common examples are the Likert scale and 1-10 rating
scales for which a person selects the number which is considered to reflect the perceived quality
of a product. The basic feature of any rating scale is that it consists of a number of categories.
These are usually assigned integers.
Semantic Differential Scales
The Semantic Differential (SD) tries to assess an individual‟s reaction to specific words,
ideas or concepts in terms of ratings on bipolar scales defined with contrasting adjectives at each
end. An example of an SD scale is:
Good Bad
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Usually, the position marked 0 is labeled “neutral,” the 1 positions are labeled “slightly,” the 2
positions “quite,” and the 3 positions “extremely.” In the illustration above, for instance, a “3”
close to good would mean an “extremely good” reaction while a “3” close to bad would be an
“extremely bad” reaction. The scale actually measures two things: directionality of a reaction
(e.g., good versus bad) and also intensity (slight through extreme). Usually, a person is presented
with some concept of interest without any other explanatory remarks, e.g., Math teacher, and
asked to rate it on a number of such scales. Ratings are combined in various ways to describe and
analyze the person‟s feelings. A number of basic considerations are involved in SD
methodology:
 Bipolar adjective scales are a simple, economical means for obtaining data on people‟s
reactions. With adaptations, such scales can be used with adults or children, persons from
all walks of life, and persons from any culture.
 Ratings on bipolar adjective scales tend to be correlated, and three basic dimensions of
response account for most of the co-variation in ratings. The three dimensions, which
have been labeled Evaluation, Potency, and Activity (EPA), have been verified and
replicated in an impressive variety of studies.
 Some adjective scales are almost pure measures of the EPA dimensions; for example,
good-bad for Evaluation, powerful-powerless for Potency, and fast-slow for Activity.
Using a few pure scales of this sort, one can obtain, with considerable economy, reliable
 measures of a person‟s overall response to something. Typically, a concept is rated on
several pure scales associated with a single dimension, and the results are averaged to
provide a single factor score for each dimension. Measurements of a concept on the EPA
dimensions are referred to as the concept‟s profile.
 EPA measurements are appropriate when one is interested in affective responses. The
EPA system is notable for being a multi-variate approach to affective measurement. It is
also a generalized approach, applicable to any concept or stimulus, and thus it permits
comparisons of affective reactions on widely disparate things. EPA ratings have been
obtained for hundreds of word concepts, for stories and poems, for social roles and
stereotypes, for colors, sounds, shapes, and for individual persons.
 The SD has been used as a measure of attitude in a wide variety of projects. Osgood, et
al., (1957) report exploratory studies in which the SD was used to assess attitude change
as a result of mass media programs and as a result of messages structured in different
ways. Their chapter on attitude balance or congruity theory also presents significant
applications of the SD to attitude measurement. The SD has been used by other
investigators to study attitude formation (e.g., Barclay arid Thumin, 1963), attitudes
toward organizations (e.g., Rodefeld, 1967), attitudes toward jobs and occupations (e.g.,
Triandis, 1959; Beardslee and O‟Dowd, 1961; Gusfield and Schwartz, 1963), and
attitudes toward minorities (e.g., Prothro and Keehn, 1957; Williams, 1964; 1966). The
results in these, and many other studies, support the validity of the SD as a technique for
attitude measurement.
Thurstone and Likert Scales
Thurstone is considered the father of attitude measurement. He address the issue on how
favorable an individual is with regard to a given issue. He developed an attitude continuum to
determine the position of favorability on the issue.
Below is an example of a Thurstone scale of measurement.
Example (from Thurstone, 1931):
Directions. Put a check mark in the blank if you agree with the item.
1. Blacks should be considered the lowest class of human beings. (scale value = 0.9)
2. Blacks and whites must be kept apart in all social affairs where they might be taken as
equals. (scale value = 3.2)
3. I am not interested in how blacks rate socially. (scale value = 5.4)
4. A refusal to accept blacks is not based on any fact of nature, but on a prejudice which
should be overcome. (scale value = 7.9)
5. I believe that blacks deserve the same social previledges as whites. (scale value = 10.3)
In 1932, Likert developed the method of summated ratings (or Likert‟s scale), which is
still widely used. The Likert scale requires that individuals tick on a box to report whether they
“strongly agree”, “agree”, are “undecided”, “disagree”, or “strongly disagree”, in response to a
large number of items concerning an attitude object or stimulus. Likert scales are derived as
follows: First, you pick individual items to include. You choose individual items that you know
correlate highly with the total score across items. Second, you choose how to scale each item.
For example, you construct labels for each scale value (e.g., l to 11) to represent the
interpretation to be assigned to the number (e.g., disagree strongly = 1, disagree slightly = 2, etc.)
Third, you ask your target audience to mark each item. Fourth, you derive a target‟s score by
adding the values that target identified on each item.
Below is an example of the use of a Likert Scale:
Statement: I do not like to solve algebraic
equations. Response options:
*l. Strongly Disagree
* 2. Disagree
* 3. Agree
*4. Strongly Agree
It is common to treat the numbers obtained from a rating scale directly as measurements
by calculating averages, or more generally any arithmetic operations. Doing so is not however
justified. In terms of the levels of measurement proposed by S.S. Stevens, the data are ordinal
categorizations. This means, for example, that to agree strongly with the above statement implies
a least favorable perception of algebraic equations than does to agree with the statement.
However, the numbers are not interval-level measurements in Stevens‟ schema, which
means that equal differences do not represent equal intervals between the degree to which one
values algebraic equations. For example, the difference between strong agreement and agreement
is not necessarily the same as the difference between disagreement and agreement. Strictly, even
demonstrating that categories are ordinal requires empirical evidence based on patterns of
responses (Andrich, 1978).
In 1944, Guttman suggested that attitude should be measured by multidimensional scales,
as opposed to unidimensional scales such as those developed by Thurstone and Likert. Guttman
pointed out that there should be a multidimensional view of the attitude construct. He developed
the Scalogram Analysis, Cumulative Scaling, or as usually called, Guttman scaling. The major
characteristic of this scale is that the response to one item helps predict the responses to other
items. For instance, if the individual responds negatively to the item “I like oranges”, he is not
likely to respond positively to the item “Oranges are great for breakfast”.

Checklists
The most common and perhaps the easiest instrument in the affective domain to construct
is the checklist. A checklist consists of simple items that the student or teacher marks as “absent”
or “present”. Here are the steps in the construction of a checklist:
 Enumerate all the attributes and characteristics you wish to observe relative to the
concept being measured. For instance, if the concept is “interpersonal relation”, then
you might want to identify those indicators or attributes which constitute an evidence
of good interpersonal relation.
 Arrange these attributes as a “shopping” list of characteristics.
 Ask the students to mark those attributes or characteristics which are present and to
leave blank those which are not.
 Below is an example of a checklist for Teachers (Observational Guide) with emphasis on
the behavior: “Getting Students‟ Attention” by Sandra F. Rief (1997). Notice that
the observational guide will probably consist of several other items like: focusing students‟
attention, maintaining students‟ attention, and keeping students on task during seatwork,
each of which requires corresponding series of observable behaviors like the example given for
“getting students‟ attention”.
Checklists for Teachers
By: Sandra F. Rief, M.A.E74 (1997)
Getting students’ attention
 Ask an interesting, speculative question, show a picture, tell a little story, or read a
related poem to generate discussion and interest in the upcoming lesson.
 Try “„playfulness,” silliness, a bit of theatrics (props and storytelling) to get attention
and peak interest.
 Use storytelling. Students of all ages love to hear stories, especially personal stories.
It is very effective in getting attention.
 Add a bit of mystery. Bring in an object relevant to the upcoming lesson in a box,
bag, or pillowcase. This is a wonderful way to generate predictions and can lead to
excellent discussions or writing activities.
 Signal student‟s auditorily: ring a bell, use a beeper or timer, play a bar of music on
the piano or guitar, etc.
 Vary your tone of voice: loud, soft, whispering. Try making a louder command
“Listen! Freeze! Ready!” followed by a few seconds of silence before proceeding in
a normal voice to give directions.
 Use visual signals: flash the lights or raise your hand which signals the students to
raise their hands and close their mouths until everyone is silent.
 Frame the visual material you want students to be focused on with your hands or
with a colored box around it.
 If using an overhead, place an object (e.g., little toy car or plastic figure) to be
projected on the screen to get attention.
 Clearly signal: “Everybody. . .Ready. . .”
 Color is very effective in getting attention. Make use of colored dry-erase pens on
white boards, colored overhead ' pens for transparencies and overhead projectors, and
colored paper to highlight key words, phrases, steps to computation problems,
spelling patterns, etc.
 Model excitement and enthusiasm about the upcoming lesson.
 Use eye contact. Students should be facing you when you are speaking, especially
while instructions are being given. If students are seated in clusters, have those
students not directly facing you turn their chairs and bodies around to face you when
signaled to do so.
Name: Course/Year:

Activity

1. Enumerate the different levels in the taxonomy of the affective domain. Discuss each of
these levels.

2. The phrase: “Motivation-Hygiene” is often used to describe Herzberg‟s two-factor

theory. What are hygiene factors? Why are they important in the educative process?

3. What is a self-report? What should such a self-report essentially contain? How should a
teacher instruct the students in writing self-reports?

4. What is a rating scale? Enumerate the various types of rating scales and explain how
these rating scales are formulated?

5. What is a semantic differential scale? Illustrate the use of a semantic differential scale in
the measurement of attitude.