Page 254 - Nutrition Counseling and Education Skills: A Guide for Professionals

Affective Domain

The affective domain deals with changes in attitudes, feelings, values, beliefs, appreciation, and interests.
Often, the educator wants the learner not only to comprehend what to do but also to value it, accept it, and
find it important. Attitudes and beliefs about food are widely recognized as important determinants of a
person’s food choices. We want people to value good nutrition and select healthful foods. When imparting
information fails to bring about behavior change, the common response is to redouble efforts to teach facts
and explain why something should be done. Instead, an examination of the person’s attitudes and values
should be pursued.

The affective domain involves a process of internalization from least committed to most committed. It
categorizes the inner growth that occurs as people become aware of, and later adopt, the attitudes and
principles that assist in forming the value judgments that guide their conduct. A learning goal for a pregnant
woman would be to attain a level of basic knowledge (cognitive domain) about the proper foods to eat during
pregnancy, but also to value the knowledge so much (affective domain) that she eats nutritious foods and
practices good nutrition. Note that an objective in one domain may have a component in another. Cognitive
objectives may have an affective component, and affective objectives may have a cognitive one.

Affective objectives are more nebulous and resist precise definition; therefore, evaluation of their
achievement is more difficult. The practitioner may find it a formidable task to describe affective behaviors
involving internal feelings and emotions, but they are as important as overt behaviors. Because affective
objectives are more difficult to express, most written objectives express cognitive behaviors.

Krathwohl and colleagues24 have published a taxonomy of educational objectives in the affective domain. It
includes five major levels with subcategories:

1.0 RECEIVING (ATTENDING)
1.1 Awareness
1.2 Willingness to receive
1.3 Controlled or selected attention

2.0 RESPONDING
2.1 Acquiescence in responding
2.2 Willingness to respond
2.3 Satisfaction in response

3.0 VALUING
3.1 Acceptance of a value
3.2 Preference for a value
3.3 Commitment

4.0 ORGANIZATION
4.1 Conceptualization
4.2 Organization of a value system

5.0 CHARACTERIZATION BY A VALUE OR VALUE COMPLEX
5.1 Generalized set
5.2 Characterization

The ordering of levels describes a process by which a value progresses from a state of mere awareness or
perception to the status of greater complexity until it becomes an internal part of one’s outlook on life that
guides or controls behavior. This internalization may occur in varying degrees and may involve conformity and

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