Affective Dimensions of High and Low Cognitive Homemaking Tasks

Abstract

Homemakers were asked what they liked and disliked about 1,208 homemaking tasks they named as high and low in the cognitive requirements of attention, judgment, and planning. “Pleasure derived from the results” was the reason cited most often for liking both the high and low cognitive tasks. Their responses for the disliked aspects were varied.Broad groupings of liked aspects were distributed similarly for high and low cognitive tasks, as were the broad groupings of disliked aspects. Liked aspects were most often in the affective domain, then in the content of the work and in the physical and social context. Disliked aspects were most often about the content of the work, the context, and then affec tive factors.The 208 wives also rated and ranked their tasks. A significant proportion of high cognitive tasks were rated liked and ranked most liked. Only half of the low cognitive tasks were rated disliked, although a significant proportion were ranked least liked. Implications for design of homemaking tasks are to enhance the personal satisfaction with accomplishment and results and to adjust some of the sources of dislike in the content of the work.