This document describes the development and validation of the Compassion of Other Lives (COOL) scale. It defines compassion as having two components - empathy and a desire to alleviate suffering. Researchers administered an initial 56-item questionnaire to 354 students and used exploratory factor analysis to identify 26 total items measuring empathy and alleviating suffering in two factors. The scale was found to have good reliability. Future directions include further validating the scale and exploring its use for employment criteria in compassion-related fields.

1. Compassion Of Other
Lives Scale
C.O.O.L
Dr. John Chang
Christopher H. Bolton

2. Compassion
• “The feeling that arises in witnessing another’s
suffering and that motivates a subsequent desire
to help.” – Goetz et al. (2010)
• “Being moved by another’s suffering and
wanting to help.” – Lazurus (1991)
• “Feeling sorrow or concern for others along with
a desire to alleviate their suffering.” – Steller et
al. (2011)

3. How We Define Compassion
• Compassion – the unconditional empathy for someone’s suffering,
consequently leading towards a desire to alleviate that suffering.
• Two Components:
• 1) Empathy
• 2) Alleviate Suffering Behaviors

4. • Why must empathy occur before the action to Alleviate another’s
Suffering?
• If the one person is expressing behaviors that alleviate someone else’s
suffering WITHOUT FIRST expressing empathy, then this behavior is
being acted out of Altruism.

5. Empathy vs. Altruism
• Altruism
• Unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others,
consequently leading to an action to improve the welfare of
others.
• More of a Social Desirability Component
• Compassion
• the action of being aware of, being sensitive to and vicariously
experiencing the feelings and thoughts of another, consequently
leading to an action to alleviate someone’s suffering.

6. Step By Step Process
1.) Create initial questionnaire with many items pertaining to
Empathy and Alleviate Suffering Behaviors.
-56 items
2.) Administer to as many individuals as possible
-354 undergraduate ESU students
3.) Based
on item analysis, determine TWO
FACTORS:
• Which items measure the same construct?
• How statistically significant (strong) are the
items?

7. Exploratory
Factor Analysis

8. What floats in water?

9. Items
•Bread
•Apples
•Very Small Rocks
•Cherries
•A Duck

10. What Floats In Water?
Does Float: Does Not Float:

11. Methods
• Subjects
• 354 Undergraduate ESU Students
• Item Examples
• Empathy:
• I am caring to others.
• 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 (Likert Scale)
• I understand people’s feelings.
• Alleviate Suffering Behaviors:
• I would give to a homeless person sitting on the sidewalk.
• I don’t have to be paid to help others.
• Initial questionnaire had 56 Items!

12. Methods (Cont.)
• Procedure
• C.O.O.L. Questionnaire administered to students
within various majors in a classroom setting.
• Mostly given within Intro to Psychology classes.
• By using Exploratory Factor Analysis:
• Researchers determined how well items measured the two
factors: Empathy and Alleviate Suffering Behaviors.

13. Results
• Items
• 26 Total Items
• 13 Items measuring Empathy
• 13 Items measuring Alleviate Suffering Behaviors

14. Results (Cont.)
• Factors:
• Empathy + Alleviate Suffering Behaviors =
Compassion of Other Lives

15. Results (Cont.)
• Chronbach Alpha (How consistently Items related)
• Empathy
• Alpha = .89
• Alleviate Suffering
• Alpha = .897
• Test-Retest Reliability
• Empathy
• Test-Retest = .98
• Alleviate Suffering not yet determined.

16. Future Directions
• Validity
• Convergent Validity
• Measure of Emotional Empathy Scale
• Discriminate Validity
• Correlates of Delinquency Scale
• Reliability
• Implement further Test-Retest Reliability

17. Future Directions (Cont.)
• Employment Criteria
• Nurses and Medical Doctors
• Clergy
• Teachers
• Mental Health Practioners