Personality and Individual Differences 124 (2018) 141–144

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Personality and Individual Differences

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Short Communication

The development and validation of the Lovingkindness-Compassion Scale T

a,⁎ a b a c d
Hyunju Cho , Seunghye Noh , Sunghyun Park , Seokjin Ryu , Ven Misan , Jong-Sun Lee
a
Department of Psychology, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, 280, Daehak-ro, Gyeongsan-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do 38541, Republic of Korea
b
Department of Counselling Psychology, Seoul University of Buddhism, 8, Doksan-ro 70-gil, Geumcheon-gu, Seoul 08559, Republic of Korea
c
Sangdo Meditation Center, 57-8, Sangdo-ro 34-gil, Dongjak-gu, Seoul 06965, Republic of Korea
d
Department of Psychology, Kangwon National University, Gangwondaehak-gil, Chuncheon-si, Gangwon-do 24341, Republic of Korea

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: This study was to examine the construct of Lovingkindness-Compassion and to development of the
Loving-kindness Lovingkindness-Compassion Scale (LCS). Five Buddhist monks were interviewed for a definition of lo-
Compassion vingkindness-compassion. Based on their responses, potential items related to the LCS were created. This study
Self-centeredness analyzed the validity and reliability of the LCS in a sample of 469 university students. The results showed a
Confirmatory factor analysis
three-factor structure using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) as well as confirmatory factor analysis (CFA):
Validity
compassion, lovingkindness, and self-centeredness. Also, the results indicated that the LCS was significantly
correlated with self-compassion, compassionate love, social connectedness, empathy and satisfaction with life.
This study supported the reliability and validity of the LCS to measure lovingkindness-compassion.

1. Introduction
A number of researchers paid attention to compassion as a protec-
tive factor of mental health (e.g., Krieger, Altenstein, Baettig, Doerig, &
Holtforth, 2013; Mongrain, Chin, & Shapira, 2011). Compassion has
been reported to be associated with a number of potential positive
outcomes including decreased depression symptoms and rumination
(Krieger et al., 2013) and increased well-being (Mongrain et al., 2011).
Compassion is not only sensitive feelings toward a person who is suf-
fering, but also motivation to help them (Cho, 2014; Gilbert, 2010;
Goetz, Keltner, & Simon-Thomas, 2010). Researchers tried to define
compassion in their studies, but the concepts of compassion were
slightly different from each other (see Strauss et al., 2016). Particularly,
the Buddhist viewpoints of it have been insufficiently studied.
In the Buddhist perspective, compassion and loving-kindness are
parts of the four immeasurable minds (also referred to Brahmaviharas;
Buddhaghosa, 2005). Both are inextricably linked to each other and
represent almost identical states of mind (Moon, 2012). However,
compassion and loving-kindness are slightly different in their concepts;
therefore, they need to be understood separately. According to There-
vada Buddhist view, loving-kindness (mettā) is a feeling of fondness for
oneself and others with warmth (Buddhaghosa, 2005; Cho, 2014) and
compassion (karunā) involves being sensitive to a person who is suf-
fering and being motivated to help them (Buddhaghosa, 2005; Cho,
2014; Gilbert, 2010; Goetz et al., 2010). In addition, the expression
“lovingkindness-compassion” is more than just the sum of each concept.
It is based on the core of Buddhism theory, in which people are con-
nected with the same condition of life and share a universality.
Therefore, lovingkindness-compassion is a boundless state of mind ra-
ther than an obsession with any specific person or anger with anyone.
Even though some researchers have been using the term compassion
instead of lovingkindness-compassion, within the Buddhist con-
ceptualization, we defined lovingkindness-compassion as a feeling of
being touched by a person's suffering, wanting to help them (compas-
sion), and wishing them to be happy (loving-kindness), which arises
from a deep insight that all beings are connected (universality)
(Buddhaghosa, 2005; Cho, 2014). From this idea, we expected three
factors (loving-kindness, compassion and universality) for lovingkind-
ness-compassion. Given the Buddhist tradition, the aims of this study
were to develop a Lovingkindness-Compassion Scale after defining the
concepts of lovingkindness-compassion and to examine its validity and
reliability. The proposed name for this scale is the “Lovingkindness-
Compassion Scale” (LCS).
2. Methods
2.1. Participants and procedures
The study procedures were approved by the first author's university
Institutional Review Board (IRB; YUHS-25-14-017). The Data were
collected from 469 university students (338 female, 129 male, 2 un-
reported), mean age 28.99 years (SD = 11.8). They were recruited from

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: itslife@ynu.ac.kr (H. Cho).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.12.019
Received 27 July 2017; Received in revised form 28 November 2017; Accepted 11 December 2017
0191-8869/ © 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
H. Cho et al.
psychology classes in three cities in South Korea. They voluntarily
completed surveys in a classroom setting. The data from a subset of the
sample (n = 230) was used for the EFA (Exploratory Factor Analysis).
The data from another subset of the sample (n = 239) was used for the
CFA (Confirmatory Factor Analysis) and examined the validation and
reliability of the LCS.
2.2. Measures
2.2.1. Lovingkindness Compassion Scale items
From the interview with five specialists in Therevada Buddhism
(two monks and three learned priests) and literature, a large pool of
preliminary items was created. Those items were examined and dis-
cussed by the experts to verify the validity of the content, and finally
fifty-five potential items were included in this study. Participants were
instructed to indicate how much they agreed with what was stated in
each of the items on a scale of 1 (not at all true for me) to 5 (very true
for me).
2.2.2. Lovingkindness Compassion Scale (LCS)
The 15-item of the LCS was administered with sample2 (n = 239).
2.2.3. Compassionate Love Scale (CLS)
The CLS was developed by Sprecher and Fehr (2005) and it has two
versions (one measures the compassionate love toward close others and
the other measures the compassionate mind toward all humankind). In
this study, the latter (targeting strangers and humanity) was used
(Cronbach's ɑ = 0.91).
2.2.4. Self-Compassion Scale (SCS)
The SCS (Neff, 2003) was used to measure self-compassion. It was
composed of 26 items and 6 subscales: self-kindness, self-judgment,
common humanity, isolation, mindfulness, and over-identification
(Cronbach's ɑ = 0.91).
2.2.5. Social Connectedness Scale-revised (SCS-R)
The SCS-R was a revised version of the social connectedness and
social assurance scale (Lee & Robbins, 1995). It was composed of 20
items (Cronbach's ɑ = 0.93) and employed to measure the social con-
nection in relationships (Lee, Draper, & Lee, 2001).
2.2.6. Basic Empathy Scale (BES)
The BES was developed for assessing the empathic ability in ado-
lescents (Jolliffe & Farrington, 2006). It was composed of 20 items
(Cronbach's ɑ = 0.84) with two subscales (affective empathy, cognitive
empathy).
2.2.7. Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS)
The SWLS (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985) was used in
this study to measure the degree of overall life satisfaction. The SWLS
was composed of 5 items (Cronbach's ɑ = 0.90).
3. Results
3.1. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA)
Before conducting the EFA, eighteen items were selected to conduct
the EFA by some criteria (Safren, Turk, & Heimberg, 1998). The value
of the KMO (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin) and Bartlett was suitable for the
factor analysis (0.80, p < 0.001). An oblique rotation was investigated
to identify the factor structure (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988). In light of
the criteria (Kim, Kim, & Hong, 2009) and the possible interpretations
of the items, it was decided that the three-factor model was adequate in
this study.
Those items with loadings > 0.30 and having a cross loading >
0.10 were selected (Um & Cho, 2005). Three items (13, 35, 40) did not
142
Personality and Individual Differences 124 (2018) 141–144
meet these criteria and were excluded. Several items (7, 25, 34) did not
meet these criteria, but were retained because the authors unanimously
considered that removing them would reduce the content validity of the
scale in light of conceptualization. In addition, item (34) with a cross
loading was selected as factor2 according to the authors' consensus. As
a result, a total of fifteen items were included in the LCS. According to
the concept of loving-kindness and compassion, the three factors were
labeled as compassion, lovingkindness and self-centeredness.
3.2. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)
All the data from sample2 was analyzed by the CFA using AMOS 18
to confirm the factor structure of the LCS. First, the missing values were
estimated by the EM algorithm, which is the same as that used in the
EFA. Then the CFA was conducted. As a result, the three-factor model
(χ2 = 151.6, df = 85) was a suitable fit (TLI = 0.915, CFI = 0.931,
RMSEA = 0.057).
3.3. Validity
We examined the correlation of the scores on the LCS with those of
other related scales to investigate its concurrent and convergent va-
lidity. The SCS (r = 0.55, p < 0.001) and CLS (r = 0.63, p < 0.001),
which were developed to measure compassion, have moderate corre-
lation with the LCS.
The LCS was significantly correlated with BES (r = 0.36,
p < 0.001) and SWLS (r = 0.47, p < 0.001). Specifically, lo-
vingkindness, which is a subscale of the LCS, was significantly corre-
lated with SCS-R (r = 0.57, p < 0.001), BES (r = 0.21, p < 0.01),
and SWLS (r = 0.58, p < 0.001). Compassion was positively corre-
lated with SCS-R (r = 0.37, p < 0.001), BES (r = 0.41, p < 0.001),
and SWLS (r = 0.32, p < 0.001). Self-centeredness had negative cor-
relation with SCS-R (r = − 0.49, p < 0.001), BES (r = −0.26,
p < 0.001), and SWLS (r = −0.24, p < 0.001).
3.4. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability
The LCS demonstrated suitable internal consistency. The Cronbach's
alpha for the 15-item LCS was 0.85. Each factor demonstrated suitable
internal consistency as well: compassion 0.78, self-centeredness 0.72,
and lovingkindness 0.75. The test-retest reliability of the LCS was ex-
amined over a 3-week interval and was 0.79.
4. Discussion
The purpose of this study was to develop a lovingkindness com-
passion scale based on the Buddhist perspective and to examine its
validity and reliability. The results indicated that the current 15 items
of the LCS with three factors (compassion, loving-kindness and self-
centeredness) are reliable and valid. Also, the results showed that the
internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the LCS were adequate.
It suggested that the LCS is a relatively stable configuration concept
over time.
The contribution of this work is developing the LCS in terms of
Buddhism. Our definition of lovingkindness-compassion reflects the
Buddhist view on considering the connection with each other. As pre-
dicted, lovingkindness and compassion were included in the LCS. This
result is consistent with the Buddhist view on lovingkindness-compas-
sion (Buddhaghosa, 2005; Cho, 2014; Mesan, Kim, Cha, Lee, & Park,
2015). As well, previous studies suggested that practicing lovingkind-
ness and compassion meditation raised social connectedness
(Boellinghaus, Jones, & Hutton, 2013; Fredrickson, Cohn, Coffey, Pek,
& Finkel, 2008; Hutcherson, Seppala, & Gross, 2008) and enhanced the
neural systems thought to be important for empathy and compassion
(Mascaro, Darcher, Negi, & Raison, 2015).
However, universality was not included in the LCS. Instead of
H. Cho et al. Personality and Individual Differences 124 (2018) 141–144

universality, self-centeredness was included as a subscale of the LCS.
Buddhaghosa (2005) suggested that greed, hatred, and delusion, which
usually come from self-centeredness, could be eliminated by practicing
lovingkindness-compassion. Self-centeredness supposes a distinction
between oneself and others. Distinguishing ourselves from others can
thus create obsession of belongings or self. If we possess something, we
will become greedy and angry and hostile toward others. These kinds of
mindsets, such as self-centeredness, egoism, and selfishness, are likely
to overwhelm us and make it difficult to cultivate lovingkindness-
compassion. That is, self-centeredness is the opposite concept of the
belief that all beings are connected. Therefore, we believe that it is an
important element for understanding lovingkindness-compassion, even
though it is rarely considered in other scales.
The present study has a number of limitations: first, it is unclear
whether the construct of the LCS can be evidence or not in other cul-
tural populations because this study used sample exclusively in South
Korea. Especially, Asians and Westerns have a cultural difference;
Asians have collective cultures and have been described as having a
more interdependent sense of self than Western people have. Also,
Asians have been exposed to Buddhist teachings and are accustomed to
connectionism, which is the opposite of self-centeredness. Therefore,
the LCS needs to be validated in the West. Second, all of the items and
instructions were written in Korean and translated into English (in
order to prepare this article for publication). Therefore, testing the
measurement in an English-language version is also needed for future
studies.
In conclusion, we hope that the LCS (a) contributes to under-
standing the concept of lovingkindness-compassion of Theravada; (b)
broadly contributes to the study of loving-kindness and compassion in
process and practice, especially as a useful instrument to investigate
connection with others.
Funding statement
The authors received no financial support for the research, author-
ship, and/or publication of this article.
Acknowledgments
Portions of this paper were presented at the 5th Asian Cognitive
Behavior Therapy Conference in 2015. The authors would like to thank
the interviewees (VM, JU, JK, MG, BR), the participants who completed
the questionnaires, and BY, HS, SM, YL, CH for their help in the data
collection. Also, we would like to express our appreciation for the as-
sistance of HC and JO.

Appendix A. Lovingkindness Compassion Scale

Please read each statement and decide how you feel toward myself, others, and the world. Check (v) the points which apply to you.

Items Not at all true Rarely true Usually true A little true Very true
of me of me of me of me of me

1 I feel stable and peaceful. ① ② ③ ④ ⑤

2 I feel a warm heart toward whomever I meet. ① ② ③ ④ ⑤
3 I have a hostile attitude toward other people. ① ② ③ ④ ⑤
4 I feel jealous of people who turned out better than me. ① ② ③ ④ ⑤
5 I am fine just the way I am. ① ② ③ ④ ⑤
6 I am thankful for all living things in the world. ① ② ③ ④ ⑤
7 I try to revenge on those who have caused me pain no matter what it ① ② ③ ④ ⑤
takes.
8 When I see troubled or suffering people, I would like to help them ① ② ③ ④ ⑤
without expecting any compensation.
9 I feel sorry for those people in pain even if I may dislike them. ① ② ③ ④ ⑤
10 I wish for all people to be released from their suffering. ① ② ③ ④ ⑤
11 I ignore the people in need, if there isn't any benefit to me. ① ② ③ ④ ⑤
12 I empathize with those whose hearts are wounded. ① ② ③ ④ ⑤
13 I build relationships only with those who are of help to me. ① ② ③ ④ ⑤
14 I believe that all living things are connected to one another. ① ② ③ ④ ⑤
15 I build relationships only when I need them. ① ② ③ ④ ⑤

Appendix B. Supplementary data

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.12.019.

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