This section is organized by the name of the measures.
Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR) is a 36-item used to measure adult romantic attachment.
The Interpersonal Orientation Scale was developed to focus on four dimensions assumed to underlie affiliation motivation: social comparison, emotional support, positive stimulation, and attention.
- Hill, C. A. (1987). Affiliation motivation: People who need people.. but in different ways. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(5), 1008-1018. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.52.5.100
Interview protocol was developed to explore issues of compassion and communication in the workplace. The areas of discussion included: (1) background on the individual’s job, career, and education; (2) typical activities on the job and feelings about those activities; (3) definitions of compassion and a discussion of how compassion is “done” in the job; and (4) a consideration of the influence of compassionate communication on the research participant, clients, coworkers, and others.
“Memory” Task is a novel non-verbal and implicit measure of emotional empathy specially developed for the study by Rabinowitch et al. Children were shown a short movie clip, in which a protagonist undergoes an emotional experience. The movie clips lasted between 61 and 97 seconds. After viewing the clip the children were presented with a “Memory” Task, where they were asked to select the facial expression that they remember having seen among the faces presented prior to the clip presentation.
Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET) consists of a series of photographs, most of which depict people in emotionally charged situations. To assess cognitive empathy, subjects are required to infer the mental states of the individuals shown in the photographs. After giving their response, participants receive feedback about the correct answer. Then, to assess emotional empathy, subjects rate their emotional reactions in response to the pictures (emotional empathy).
The Multimotive Grid was developed to measure motives with respect to their hope and fear components. It was based on the grid technique, originally developed to combine the advantages of Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and questionnaire methods. It measures specifically the ‘big three’ motives: achievement, affiliation and power.
- Sokolowski, K., Schmalt, H. D., Langens, T. A., & Puca, R. M. (2000). Assessing achievement, affiliation, and power motives all at once: the Multi-Motive Grid (MMG). J Pers Assess. 74, 126-45. doi:10.1037/t08319-000
Need to Belong Scale measures the strong desire to form and maintain enduring interpersonal attachments.
- Leary, M. R., Kelly, K. M., Cottrell, C. A., & Schreindorfer, L. S. (2007). Individual differences in the need to belong: Mapping the nomological network. Unpublished manuscript, Duke University.
Online questionnaire and a short passage of information about a person who had been in a car accident and who consequently could not go to work (adapted from Batson et al., 1997). Empathy was measured by participants rating how sympathetic, warm, compassionate, softhearted, and tender they felt toward the person on a 7-point scale (1 = not at all like this; 7 = a lot like this), a = .94. Willingness to help: Participants were then asked to respond to two questions using a 5-point scale (1 =not at all; 5 = very much): “To what extent would you be willing to offer financial help to the person in this situation?” and “To what extent would you be willing to offer your time to help the person in this situation?”
Preference for Solitude Scale measure individual differences in preference for solitude.
- Burger, J. M. (1995). Individual differences in preference for solitude. Journal Of Research In Personality, 29(1), 85-108. doi:10.1006/jrpe.1995.1005
Recall – to provide detailed account of a specific experience of compassionate (or altruistic) love for either close others, strangers or non-close others before they responded to follow-up questions that asked how they were affected by the experience. Then, the participants are asked to rate the experience on intensity (“…please rate the intensity of the compassionate love you experienced during the particular episode you described”) and typicality (“To what degree do you believe that your compassionate love experience described above is typical of compassionate love experiences?”). Each of these two items is followed by a 9-point response scale that ranged from 1 = not at all (intense/typical) to 9 = extremely (intense/typical). Then, they assess the degree to which they had been affected or changed on several dimensions because of their compassionate love experience.
Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) is a 10 question self-report unidimensional measure of global self-esteem — Mongrain, Chin, and Shapira (2010). Shapira and Mongrain (2010).
- Mongrain, M., Chin, J. M., & Shapira, L.B. (2010). Practicing Compassion Increases Happiness and Self-Esteem. Journal of Happiness Studies, 12, 963-981.
- Shapira, L. B., & Mongrain, M. (2010). The benefits of self-compassion and optimism exercises for individuals vulnerable to depression. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 5, 377-389.
Social Comparison through Physical Appearance Scale (SCPAS) assesses the social ranking based on one’s physical appearance, and not the tendency to make comparisons of the general physical appearance or specific body parts.
- Ferreira, C., Pinto-Gouveia, J., & Duarte, C. (2013). Physical appearance as a measure of social ranking: The role of a new scale to understand the relationship between weight and dieting. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 20(1), 55-66. DOI: 10.1002/cpp.769
Steen Happiness Index (SHI) is a 20 item index that asks levels of happiness over the previous week.
- Seligman, M., Steen, T., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60, 410-421.
Toronto Alexithymia Scale as part of the Zurich Prosocial Game which was developed that allows for repeated assessment of prosocial behavior and for parsing the influence of reciprocity, cost, and distress on prosocial behavior.
“Triple Dominance” is a measure of prosocial value orientation to assess altruism.
- Van Lange, P. A. M. (1999). The pursuit of joint outcomes and equality in outcomes: An integrative model of social value orientation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 337-49.