Compassionate and Self-Image Goals Scale

Abstract

The Compassionate and Self-Image Goals Scale (CSIGS), developed by Crocker and Canevello (2008), is a specialized psychological instrument designed to assess an individual’s motivational orientation within communal relationships. Unlike traditional goal measures focused on content, the CSIGS defines goals by the underlying process: specifically, the intentions one holds toward others while pursuing important objectives. The scale differentiates between two orientations: Compassionate Goals, which focus on being a constructive force and avoiding harm to others, and Self-Image Goals, which center on establishing, maintaining, and defending a desired self-image to gain social benefits. The tool is typically administered in a format that tracks weekly changes in these goal intentions within specific relational domains, such as friendships or roommate dynamics.

Keywords

Compassionate goals, self-image goals, motivation, social support, communal relationships, goal orientation, psychometrics, relationship conflict.

Authors

Crocker, J., Canevello, A.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Compassionate and Self-Image Goals Scale is to quantitatively measure the degree to which individuals approach their important life objectives with either a compassionate or a self-image goal orientation. This measurement is crucial because individuals may hold both types of goals simultaneously; they are not positioned as opposite ends of a single continuum. The instrument provides a nuanced way to analyze how these differing motivational perspectives—intentions focused on self-protection versus intentions focused on others’ well-being—influence relationship quality and psychological outcomes.

The tool is designed for dynamic assessment, allowing researchers to track temporal changes in goal setting, often on a weekly basis. This longitudinal application helps elucidate how shifts in goal orientation predict corresponding fluctuations in crucial relationship variables, including goal-related affect, feelings of closeness, conflict levels, and beliefs about mutual caring. The scale’s utility lies in its ability to predict social dynamics based on underlying relational intentions rather than merely observed behavior.

Construct

The scale measures two distinct yet interacting motivational constructs rooted in relational intentions. These constructs are independent of the specific content of the goal being pursued (e.g., academic success or career advancement).

Compassionate Goals reflect a prosocial orientation where the individual intends to be a constructive presence in interactions, actively striving to avoid harming others. This orientation involves considering others’ needs, showing support, and having compassion for others’ mistakes and weaknesses. The pursuit of compassionate goals is intrinsically linked to fostering healthy, supportive communal relationships.

Self-Image Goals reflect an ego-centric orientation where the primary intention is self-validation and defense. Individuals pursuing these goals seek to construct, maintain, and defend specific desired public and private images of the self. The underlying drive is often to obtain social goods, validation, or status from others, and to avoid negative judgments such as being perceived as unintelligent, wrong, or weak. This orientation can inadvertently undermine social support and increase relational conflict.

Validity

The scale is supported by robust evidence for both convergent and divergent validity. The goal orientations demonstrate theoretically consistent relationships with a variety of established psychological measures, including beliefs, self-relevant variables, relationship style variables, and the Big 5 personality factors.

Validation studies confirm the predictive validity of the scale in relational contexts. High average scores on the self-image goals subscale reliably predicted negative relationship outcomes, including increased conflict, feelings of loneliness, and states of feeling afraid and confused. Conversely, the presence of compassionate goals significantly attenuated these detrimental effects. Furthermore, the scale demonstrated criterion validity by showing that week-to-week changes in goals predicted corresponding changes in affect, relationship closeness, conflict frequency, loneliness, and beliefs regarding mutual versus individualistic caring.

Reliability

The Compassionate and Self-Image Goals Scale exhibits strong reliability, particularly in terms of internal consistency. Across longitudinal studies, where measurements were taken repeatedly over several weeks, both the compassionate goals subscale and the self-image goals subscale maintained consistently high internal consistency. This indicates that the items designed to measure each respective construct are highly correlated and reliably measure the same underlying dimension over time.

Factor Analysis

The scale is fundamentally structured as a two-factor model, corresponding to the two constructs: Compassionate Goals and Self-Image Goals. Although detailed technical results of exploratory or confirmatory factor analysis (EFA/CFA) are elaborated in the key reference (Crocker & Canevello, 2008), the scoring method explicitly reinforces this structure. The items are distinctly divided into two subscales, and scores for each goal type are derived by calculating the mean of the items specific to that subscale. This clear separation confirms the independence of the compassionate and self-image factors.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report questionnaire / Psychological Goal Assessment

Format: The scale generally consists of 16 items, divided into two subscales (8 items for compassionate goals, 8 for self-image goals), although the Friendship version uses 13 items. Items are rated on a five-point Likert scale.

Language Available: English (Primary publication language)

Population Group: Individuals engaged in close communal relationships, such as friendships, romantic partnerships, or roommate relationships.

Age Group: Applicable to adults and young adults, frequently used in college and university settings (e.g., samples of incoming college freshmen).

Population Details: The scale measures goal intentions in specific relational contexts. The published versions include adaptations for Friendship relationships (13 items) and Roommate relationships (16 items).

Test Methodology: Respondents indicate how much they “wanted” or “tried” to achieve the described goal intention within the specified relational area (e.g., friendships) over a defined short time frame (e.g., “In the past week” or “TODAY”). Subscale scores are determined by averaging the item scores within the respective compassionate or self-image goal set.

Keywords

Motivational psychology, goal theory, self-regulation, relationship dynamics, communal goals, interpersonal conflict, internal consistency, Crocker & Canevello.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source content.

Affiliation Email addresses: Jennifer Crocker: [email protected]; Amy Canevello: [email protected].

Correspondence Address: Not provided in source content.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The authors, Jennifer Crocker and Amy Canevello, explicitly grant researchers permission to utilize these measures in their academic research without mention of a fee. The scale was primarily validated and published in 2008, establishing the scale’s test year.

Reference’s

Crocker, J., & Canevello, A. (2008). Creating and undermining social support in communal relationships: The role of compassionate and self-image goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 555-575.

Items of the Compassionate and Self-Image Goals Scale

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

FRIENDSHIP COMPASSIONATE AND SELF-IMAGE GOALS SCALE

• COMPASSIONATE GOALS: items 1, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12
• SELF-IMAGE GOALS: items 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 13
• SCORING: Take the mean of items in each subscale.

In the past week, in the area of friendships, how much did you want or try to:		Not at All	A little	Somewhat	A lot	Extremely
1.	avoid doing things that aren’t helpful to me or others	1	2	3	4	5
2.	avoid the possibility of being wrong	1	2	3	4	5
3.	get others to recognize or acknowledge your positive qualities	1	2	3	4	5
4.	avoid being selfish or self-centered	1	2	3	4	5
5.	have compassion for others’ mistakes and weaknesses	1	2	3	4	5
6.	avoid being rejected by others	1	2	3	4	5
7.	avoid taking risks or making mistakes	1	2	3	4	5
8.	be constructive in your comments to others	1	2	3	4	5
9.	avoid showing your weaknesses	1	2	3	4	5
10.	avoid doing anything that would be harmful to others	1	2	3	4	5
11.	be supportive of others	1	2	3	4	5
12.	make a positive difference in someone else’s life	1	2	3	4	5
13.	convince others that you are right	1	2	3	4	5

ROOMMATE COMPASSIONATE AND SELF-IMAGE GOALS SCALE

• COMPASSIONATE GOALS: items 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13
• SELF-IMAGE GOALS: items 3, 8, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16
• SCORING: Take the mean of items in each subscale.

TODAY in my relationship with my roommate, I wanted / tried to . . .		Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	Extremely
1.	Have compassion for my roommate’s mistakes and weaknesses.	1	2	3	4	5
2.	Make a positive difference in my roommate’s life.	1	2	3	4	5
3.	Avoid the possibility of being wrong.	1	2	3	4	5
4.	Be supportive of my roommate.	1	2	3	4	5
5.	Avoid neglecting my relationship with my roommate.	1	2	3	4	5
6.	Avoid being selfish or self-centered.	1	2	3	4	5
7.	Avoid doing things that aren’t helpful to me or my roommate.	1	2	3	4	5
8.	Avoid showing my weaknesses.	1	2	3	4	5
9.	Be constructive in my comments to my roommate.	1	2	3	4	5
10.	Avoid doing anything that would be harmful to my roommate.	1	2	3	4	5
11.	Get my roommate to do things my way.	1	2	3	4	5
12.	Avoid being blamed or criticized.	1	2	3	4	5
13.	Be aware of the impact my behavior might have on my roommate’s feelings.	1	2	3	4	5
14.	Demonstrate my intelligence.	1	2	3	4	5
15.	Convince my roommate that I am right.	1	2	3	4	5
16.	Avoid coming across as unintelligent or incompetent.	1	2	3	4	5