Hi Ema,

everytime I bumped into some studies on compassion it was always trait compassion (self-compassion, actually); while, if I'm getting it right, you're interested in state compassion you want to elicit through some vignettes.

I searched for a while, but I didn't find any proper scale; anyway, I guess in a pilot you can build one by creating some items that can represent what you imagine to be the most salient psychological ingredients of the compassion; something like:

I feel sorry for the depicted character

What happened to the character makes me feel sad

But I have a question: how can you distinguish between state compassion and state empathy? If you think the two "emotions" are superimposable, perhaps you can steal some state empathy scales, they exist ;)

I hope this can help you somehow.

All the best,

Alessandro

Hello Ema,

In my opinion, without knowing the demographics of the participants it is hard to suggest a proper scale. Have you selected your variables? There are many factors that go into the formation of a vignette (e.g. age of the participants, educational background, nationality). In addition, the variables need to tie into your research question.

I hope this helps.

Genevieve Floyed

I am not aware of any such scale. Some refer to compassion/empathy as one component of intrapersonal IQ. Insight or interpersonal IQ is the 2nd element of EIQ. Be prepared that some respondents will posses little of these qualities, particularly those w/ certain disordered personalities.

Best, Rich