Compassionate love has been identified as one of the major types of love experienced in relationships, but one that has been overshadowed by the study of romantic love. A Compassionate Love scale (CLS) was developed (Sprecher & Fehr, 2005) that can be used, in alternative forms, to assess compassionate or altruistic love for different targets. The targets include strangers or all of humanity, close others, and a specific close other (e.g., a romantic partner). This chapter describes the development of the 21-item CLS, including its psychometric properties and evidence for reliability and validity. Short forms of the CLS have also been developed and have been used in several studies. We encourage additional research that examines precursors, correlates, and consequences of experiencing compassionate love for others, as well as receiving compassionate love from others.