The Sussex-Oxford Compassion Scales

The Sussex-Oxford Compassion Scales (SOCS) are two questionnaire measures of self-compassion and other-compassion that are based on our definition of compassion. Both scales have 20 items, and each one takes just a few minutes to complete.

For each scale, you can calculate both a total score, indicating overall levels of self-compassion or other-compassion, and a score for each of the five elements, indicating, for example, capacities to recognise suffering in ourselves or to do something to ease other people’s suffering.

You are welcome to use the Sussex-Oxford Compassion for Others Scale (SOCS-O) and Sussex-Oxford Compassion for the Self Scale (SOCS-S) — both are free to use.

Scale instructions, scoring information, and the reference are included in the link for each measure.

Please do contact us using the details on the contact page to let us know you are using one or both of the scales and to share your findings.