This section is organized by the scale names.
Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES) is used to measure affective empathy. Furthermore, emotional response to observed facial expressions is correlated with affective empathy.
- Hooker, C. I., Verosky, S., Germine, L., Knight, R. T., & D’Esposito, M. (2010). Neural activity during social signal perception correlates with self-reported empathy. Brain Research, 1308, 100-113.
Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright’s The Empathy Quotient measures level of empathy along three lines: cognitive empathy, emotional reactivity, and social skills.
- Lawrence, E. J., Shaw, P., Baker, D., Baron-Cohen, S., & David, A. S. (2004). Measuring empathy: reliability and validity of the Empathy Quotient. Psychological Medicine, 34(05), 911-920. doi:10.1017/S0033291703001624
Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory is the most widely used client-rated measure of empathy, it measures clients’ perceptions.
- Elliott, R., Bohart, A. C., Watson, J. C., & Greenberg, L. S. (2011). Empathy. Psychotherapy, 48(1), 43-49. doi:10.1037/a0022187
Compassion Satisfaction Fatigue Test is used predominantly with mental health workers (Stamm, 2002) is a self-report measure with three subscales: estimate of compassion; risk of burnout and compassion fatigue.
- Stamm, B.H. (2002). Measuring compassion satisfaction as well as fatigue: Developmental history of the compassion fatigue and satisfaction test. In C.R. Figley (Ed.), 107-119.
The Compassionate Attributes and Action Scales are three scales which measure self-compassion (“I am motivated to engage and work with my distress when it arises”), the ability to be compassionate to distressed others (“I am motivated to engage and work with other peoples’ distress when it arises.”) and the ability to receive compassion from key persons in the respondent’s life (“Other people are actively motivated to engage and work with my distress when it arises.”).
- In the first section of each scale, six items are formulated to reflect the six compassion attributes in the CFT model: sensitivity to suffering, sympathy, non-judgemental, empathy, distress tolerance and care for wellbeing. These sections also include two reversed filler items.
- The second section of the scale has four more items which reflect specific compassionate actions to deal with distress and an extra reversed filler item.
- Participants are asked to rate each statement according to how frequently it occurs on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 = Never; 10= Always).
Compassionate Love Scale (CLS) is used to measure compassionate or altruistic love for different targets (e.g., close others and all of humankind).
- Sprecher, S. (2005). Compassionate love for close others and humanity. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 22(5), 629-651.
The Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) Measure is a consultation process measure based on a broad definition of empathy in context of a therapeutic relationship within the consultation. The wording reflects a desire to produce a holistic, patient-centred measure that is meaningful to patients irrespective of their social class, and has been developed and applied in over 3,000 general practice consultations in areas of high and low deprivation in the west of Scotland.
- The scoring system for each item is ‘poor’=1, ‘fair’ = 2, ‘good’ = 3, ‘very good’ = 4, and ‘excellent’= 5. All ten items are then added, giving a maximum possible score of 50, and a minimum of 10. Up to two ‘Not Applicable’ responses or missing values are allowable, and are replaced with the average score for the remaining items. Questionnaires with more than two missing values or ‘Not Applicable’ responses are removed from the analysis.
- Mercer, S. W., Watt, G. C. M., Maxwell, M., & Heaney, D.H. (2004). The development and preliminary validation of the Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) Measure: an empathy-based consultation process measure. Family Practice, 21(6), 699-705.
Dispositional positive emotion scales (DPES) is a 38-item, self-report instrument with seven 5- or 6-item scales: joy, contentment, pride, love, compassion, amusement, and awe. Assess compassion using the compassion subscale.
- Shiota, M. N., Keltner, D., & John, O. P. (2006). Positive emotion dispositions differentially associated with Big Five personality and attachment style. Journal of Positive Psychology, 1, 61-71.
Emotional Empathy – The Questionnaire Measure of emotional empathy items of the measure of empathic tendency used in the present experiments. Response to each item is on a +4 (very strong agreement) to -4 (very strong disagreement) scale, and the ( + ) and ( – ) signs preceding each item indicate the direction of scoring.
Empathy – The empathy items ask respondents to describe feelings about eight statements (Unnamed). The empathy items ask respondents to describe feelings about eight statements. Response choices range from (1) “not at all like me” to (5) “very much like me.” Items are coded and summed such that higher scores reflect more empathy.Â
Empathic Concern Scale assesses the extent to which participants experience a certain affective state on a 7-point scale (e.g, how sympathetic, softhearted, warm, compassionate, tender, moved did you feel when you saw the person with the white/red wristband receiving highly painful shocks?). It is a subscale of a 20-item emotional response scale (Batson et al., 1997 for details).
- Internal consistency reliability in-group: Cronbach’s alpha = .91, internal consistency reliability out-group: Cronbach’s alpha = .93
- Batson, C.D., Early, S., and Salvarini, G. (1997). Perspective taking: Imagining how another feels versus imagining how you would feel. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 23, 751-758.
Empathic Concern subscale of Davis’s (1980) Interpersonal Reactivity Index includes seven items tapping the respondent’s general tendency to experience feelings of warmth, compassion, and concern for others in need. This measure has been shown to positively correlate with the magnitude of neural activity related to empathy Multidimensional Individual Difference measure of Empathy final version: four 7-item subscales, each tapping a separate aspect of ’empathy’.
- Ratings were made on 7-point scales ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).
- For each respondent, calculated a single index score for empathic concern by averaging over items (Sturmer, Snyder, & Omoto, 2005).
- Davis. M. H. (1980). A multidimensional approach to individual differences in empathy. JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 10, 85.
- Sturmer, S., Snyder, M., & Omoto, A. M. (2005). Prosocial emotions and helping: The moderating role of group membership. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 532-546
Empathy Construct Rating Scale (ECSR) is a 42 item scale for overall level of empathy.
- Shapiro, S. L.,Schwartz G. E., & Bonner, G. (1998). Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on medical and premedical students. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 21(6), 581-99.
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Wallace, B. A., & Shapiro, S. L. (2006). Mental balance and well-being: Buildingbridges between Buddhism and Western psychology. American Psychologist, 61(7), 690-701.
The Empathy Continuum (EC) is a computerized procedure developed to assess children’s affective-cognitive responses to emotional events.
- Strayer, J. (1993). Children’s concordant emotions and cognitions in response to observed emotions. Child Development, 64, 188-201.
Empathy Index measures trait empathy. The index consists of 22 items assessing different aspects of perspective taking, empathic sadness, and concern for others. Participants indicated their agreement with each statement using a 9-point scale (1 = very strongly disagree to 9 = very strongly agree). Items were reverse coded appropriately and averaged to create one total composite score for trait empathy.
Fear of compassion Scales (3 types):
- For self, the compassion we have for ourselves when we make mistakes or things go wrong.
- Gilbert, P., McEwan, K., Matos, M. & Rivis, A. (2011), Fears of compassion: Development of three self-report measures. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, & Practice, 84, 239-255. doi: 10.1348/147608310X526511.
- Fear of compassion for others, the compassion we give to others.
- Gilbert, P., McEwan, K., Matos, M. & Rivis, A. (2011), Fears of compassion: Development of three self-report measures. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, & Practice, 84, 239-255. doi: 10.1348/147608310X526511.
- Fear of compassion from others, the compassion that we experience from others and flowing into the self.
- Gilbert, P., McEwan, K., Matos, M. & Rivis, A. (2011), Fears of compassion: Development of three self-report measures. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, & Practice, 84, 239-255. doi: 10.1348/147608310X526511.
Fear of happiness scale contains 10 items (later reduced to nine items), which explore people’s perceptions and anxieties around feeling happy and positive feelings in general.
- Items are rated on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (‘Not at all like me’) to 4 (‘Extremely like me’). Items were generated from statements made during therapy sessions with author PG (e.g., ‘I worry that if I feel good something bad could happen’) and were rated for face validity by the research team.
- This scale yielded a good Cronbach’s alpha of .90.
- Gilbert, P., McEwan, K., Gibbons, L., Chotai, S., Duarte, J., & Matos, M. (2011). Fears of compassion and happiness in relation to alexithymia, mindfulness, and self-criticism. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice. doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8341.2011.
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Friendship Compassion and Self-Image Goals Scale is a 13-item scale that assesses compassionate and self-image goals within two different subscales.
- All items began with the phrase “In the past week, in the area of friendships, how much did you want to or try to,” and are rated on a scale ranging from 1 (“not at all”) to 5 (“always”).
- Both subscales have high internal consistency with a Cronbach’s alpha of .83 for the self-image goals and of .90 of for the compassionate goals.
- Crocker, J., & Canevello, A. (2008). Creating and undermining social support in communal relationships: The role of compassionate and self-image goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 555-575.
Inclusion of Other in Self scale (IOS) which presents seven pictures of two circles – one representing the self and one representing the other – in different degrees of overlap and asks respondents to select the picture that best describes their relationship to the other.
- Aron, A., Aron E. N., & Smollan, D. (1992). Inclusion of other in the self scale and the structure of interpersonal closeness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 596-612.
Index of Empathy for Children and Adolescents is a 22-item questionnaire measure of dispositional affective empathy.
- Bryant, B. K. (1982). An index of empathy for children and adolescents. Child Development, 53(2), 413-425.
Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) defines empathy as the “reactions of one individual to the observed experiences of another.” It consists of 28-items answered on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from “Does not describe me well” to “Describes me very well”.
- The measure has 4 subscales, each made up of 7 different items. These subscales are (taken directly from Davis, 1983):
- Perspective Taking – the tendency to spontaneously adopt the psychological point of view of others
- Fantasy – taps respondents’ tendencies to transpose themselves imaginatively into the feelings and actions of fictitious characters in books, movies, and plays
- Empathic Concern – assesses “other-oriented” feelings of sympathy and concern for unfortunate others
- Personal Distress – measures “self-oriented” feelings of personal anxiety and unease in tense interpersonal settings
- Davis, M. H. (1980). A multidimensional approach to individual differences in empathy. JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 10, 85.
Izard’s emotions scale measures the frequency of positive emotion. They created three questions that asked experienced compassion at work, that were answered using a 5 point Likert Scale.
- Lilius, J., Worline, M., Maitlis, S., Kanov, J., Dutton, J., & Frost, P. (2008). The contours and consequences of compassion at work. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 29, 193-218.
Jefferson Scale of Patient’s Perceptions of Physician Empathy has 2 versions: brief and long. The brief instrument (5- item) intended to measure patients perceptions of his/her physician’s empathic concern and understanding. The long version is a 20-item instrument widely used and validated among health professionals and trainees.
- It uses a 7-level Likert scale from “strongly disagree”to “strongly agree” (range, 20-140). It measures 3 dimensions of empathy: perspective-taking (10 items, range, 10-70), compassionate care (8-56) and standing in the patient’s shoes (2-14).
Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL R-V) is a version of the Compassion Fatigue Test created by Figley in 1995. The ProQOL R-V includes three subscales measuring compassion fatigue/secondary trauma (CF/ST), burnout, and compassion satisfaction.
- Hudnall Stamm, B. (2009). Professional quality of life: Compassion satisfaction and fatigue subscales, R-IV (ProQOL). Retrieved from http://www.isu.edu/~bhstamm.
Rushton Altruism Scale is 20-item measure of how often prosocial behaviors are performed towards others.
- Rushton, J. P., Chrisjohn, R.D., & Fekken, G. C. (1981). The altruistic personality and the
self-report altruism sale. Personality and Individual Differences, 1, 292-302.
Santa Clara Brief Compassion Scale (SCBCS) is practical for large epidemiological studies, as its shorter length makes it easier to administer and to score.
Self-compassion scale is a 26-item self-report scale that assesses six factors that reflect the positive and negative poles of the three components of self-compassion just described – self-kindness/self-judgment, common humanity/perceived isolation, and mindfulness/overidentification.
- Neff, K. D. (2003). Development and validation of a scale to measure self-compassion. Self and Identity, 2, 223-250.
Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form (SCS-SF) is a 12-item version of Neff’s Self-Compassion Scale.
Self-Other Four Immeasurables is a scale designed to measure application of the four immeasurable qualities at the heart of Buddhist teachings: loving kindness, compassion, joy and acceptance toward both self and others. There are four distinct subscales: positive qualities toward self, positive qualities toward others, negative qualities toward self and negative qualities toward others. SOFI scale has broad utility for research on mindfulness, positive psychology, and social psychology.
- Initial examination of reliability and validity showed high internal consistency for the subscales as well as strong concurrent, discriminant, and construct validity.
- Kraus, S., & Sears, S. (2009). Measuring the immeasurables: Development and initial validation of the self-other four immeasurables (SOFI) scale based on Buddhist teachings on loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. Soc Indic Research, 92, 169-181.
Self-Report Altruism Scale (SRA) is a brief measure of personal altruism.
The Social Connectedness Scale assesses the degree to which youth feel connected to others in their social environment. Responses to the scale range from “Strongly Agree” to “Strongly Disagree” (1 to 6) — Lee and Robbins (1995)
Submissive Compassion Scale is a 10-item scale measures the extent to which one’s kind and compassionate actions are related to submissive behaviour, i.e. to the desire of appearing likeable and feel appreciated, hence reducing the fear of rejection.
- The items are rated in a 5-point Likert scale, raging from 0 (“Not at all like me”), to 4 (“Extremely like me”).
- The scale had good internal consistency with a Cronbach’s alpha of .89.
- Catarino, F., Gilbert, P., McEwan, K., & Baiao, R. (in press).Compassion motivations: Distinguishing submissive compassion from genuine compassion and its association with shame, submissive behaviour, depression, anxiety and stress. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.
Types of Positive Affect Scale is a shortened 12-item version of the original 18-item scale developed by Gilbert et al. (2008) and measures the degree to which people experience different types of positive emotions.
- Respondents are asked to rate on a five-point Likert scale how characteristic each of the 12 ‘feeling’ words is for them (0 = ‘Not characteristic of me’ to 4 = ‘Very characteristic of me’).
- Factor analysis revealed three factors: activated (e.g. ‘energetic’, ‘lively’, ‘active’), relaxed (e.g. ‘relaxed’, ‘calm’, ‘peaceful’) and secure (e.g. ‘safe’, ‘secure’, ‘warm’).
- Cronbach’s alphas for this scale were .83 for activated and relaxed and .73 for secure.
- Gilbert, P., McEwan, K., Mitra, R., Franks, L., Richter, A., & Rockliff, H. (2008).Feeling safe and content: A specific affect regulation system? Relationship to depression, anxiety, stress and self-criticism. Journal of Positive Psychology, 3, 182-191.
Competitiveness and Caring Scale measures evaluations of one’s current competitive abilities and sense of self (e.g., degree of feeling ‘successful – unsuccessful’) and caring abilities and sense of self (e.g., degree of feeling ‘compassionate – uncompassionate’).
- Research and clinical staff generated words to reflect competitive and caring attributes. These words were then discussed at a research meeting and were blindly and independently rated by six researchers for their suitability. The top nine scoring competitive words and the top nine scoring caring words were chosen and turned into bipolar measures to be rated on a 10-point Likert scale (see Table 1).
- This used the same basic methodology as used to develop the social comparison (SC) scale (Allan & Gilbert, 1995).
- McEwan, K., Gilbert, P. & Duarte, J. (2012). An exploration of competitiveness and caring in relation to psychopathology. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 51, 19-36. DOI:10.1111/j.2044-8260.2011.02010.x
- Allan, S. & Gilbert, P. (1995). A social comparison scale: Psychometric properties and relationship to psychopathology. Personality and Individual Differences, 19, 293-299.
Social Safeness and Pleasure Scale was developed to measure the extent to which people experience their social worlds as safe, warm and soothing. The items relate feelings of belonging, acceptance and feelings of warmth from others (e.g. “I feel content within my relationships”, “I feel secure and wanted”, “I feel a sense of warmth in my relationships with people”).
- Respondents rate on a 5 point Likert scale the extent to which they agree with each of the 12 statements ranging from 0 (“almost never”) to 4 (“almost all the time”).
- The Social Safeness and Pleasure Scale has a high Cronbach alpha of .92.
- Gilbert, P., McEwan, K., Mitra, R., Richter, A., Franks, L., Mills, A.,… & Gale, C. (2009). An exploration of different types of positive affect in students and in patients with bipolar disorder. Clinical Neuropsychiatry, 6, 135-143.
Questionnaire Measure of Emotional Empathy (QMEE) measures empathy and is a good predictor of helping behavior, and therefore it might prove useful in studies of prosocial behavior in work organizations.