Abstract
This purpose of this study is to develop a brief version of Sprecher and Fehr’s Compassionate Love Scale (2005). This was accomplished by administering the 21-item scale to college student participants and subsequently selecting five items for a brief version. The five items were selected based on the evaluation of high correlation coefficients between individual item responses and the overall total 21 questions from the original scale, the results of factor analysis, and items that had moderate means and high standard deviations. The correlation between the original and brief version is 0.96, while the internal reliability of the brief version, using Cronbach’s alpha, is 0.90.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Batson, D. C., Change, J., Orr, R., & Rowland, J. (2002). Empathy, attitudes, and action: can feeling for a member of a stigmatized group motivate one to help the group? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 1656–1666.
Davis, M. H. (1996). Empathy: A social psychological approach. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Dovidio, J. F., & Penner, L. A. (2001). Helping and altruism. In M. Hewstone (Ed.), Blackwell international handbook of social psychology: Interpersonal processes (pp. 162–195). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Dreher, D. E., Holloway, K. E., & Schoenfelder, E. (2007). The vocation identity questionnaire: Measuring the sense calling. Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, 18, 99–120.
Lazarus, R. S. (1991). Emotion and adaptation. New York: Oxford University Press.
Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. New York: Oxford University Press.
Plante, T. G., & Boccaccini, M. (1997). The Santa Clara strength of religious faith questionnaire. Pastoral Psychology, 45, 375–387.
Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Authentic happiness. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Sprecher, S., & Fehr, B. (2005). Compassionate love for close others and humanity. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 22, 629–651.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Appendix
Appendix
Santa Clara Brief Compassion Scale
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hwang, J.Y., Plante, T. & Lackey, K. The Development of the Santa Clara Brief Compassion Scale: An Abbreviation of Sprecher and Fehr’s Compassionate Love Scale. Pastoral Psychol 56, 421–428 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-008-0117-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-008-0117-2