Beyond the Cognitive: The Affective Domain, Values, and the Achievement of the Vision

ASCE has developed an aspirational vision of the profession that deals aggressively with pressing emergent issues. The vision demands development of many aspects of the profession, including both specialized knowledge and its direction into action. As a result, a vocabulary of achievement is needed that addresses both. Standard educational taxonomy distinguishes the cognitive and affective domains of human achievement. The cognitive domain is typically emphasized as it comprises “knowledge, skills and abilities” and is naturally of importance to engineering. By itself, the cognitive domain is an inadequate guide to achieving the vision. The affective domain addresses “internalization of values,” and provides an essential complement. This paper describes the affective vocabulary, why it is important, and how it relates to achieving the aspirational vision.