The Effect of Affective Domain Characteristics on Behavioral or Psychomotor Outcomes

Abstract

Whole person learning (WPL) can be defined as the com-bined influences of the three learning domains, cognitive, affective, and psychomotor (behavioral) in experiential learning. Cognitive and psychomotor domains have long been studied and found to exert a great deal of influence as contributing to whole person learning. The idea of immer-sion (involvement) is important to whole person learning. In order for whole person learning to be at its greatest one must be immersed/involved in both body and soul. The diminishing of either one will diminish the degree of whole person learning that is taking place. When we consider the “emotional immersion” as part of the “whole person” learning outcome, we find that because emotions and feel-ing vary to a (great) degree, from individual to individual, so too can the sometimes negative effects (lesser influence) as well as the positive effects (greater influence) of emo-tions on how we feel toward something, and how that feel-ing affects not only how and how much we learn, but also to a degree what we learn. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to look at some factors in the affective domain and to determine what type of effect they have on whole person learning.