Assessing the correlation of Machiavellian beliefs, spiritual intelligence and life satisfaction of Iran's national team athletes (The Iranian national athletes as a Case Study)

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship of Machiavellian Believe, Spiritual Intelligence and life Satisfaction among Iranian National Athletes. Statistical population contains the world and Olympic champions in the selected sports including basketball, volleyball, Kabbadi, Greco-Roman, freestyle wrestling, cycling, shooting, rowing, fencing, and karate therefore 220 people were selected in which 212 of them accepted to cooperate. The data were collected by means of three questionnaires that include: King Spiritual Intelligence (SISIR-24), Diener life satisfaction questionnaire (SWLS) and Machiavellian Believe questionnaire (Mach IV) that consists of 37 questions based on the Likert scale. The scale was 1 to 5. (1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = not sure, 4 = agree, and 5 = strongly agree). The reliability of the questionnaire was studied with composite reliability (CR). Construct Validity of the scale has been evaluated by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Research hypotheses have been tested by structural equation modeling (SEM) in LISREL software. To investigate the relationship between athletes' Machiavellian Believe and life satisfaction, the Spearman correlation coefficient was used. Spearman correlation coefficient is 0.281 that shows there is a significant relationship between spiritual intelligence and life satisfaction among athletes (p < 0.05). In order to investigate the relationship between Machiavellian Believe and spiritual intelligence of athletes', spearman correlation coefficient was used. Based on the results of the test, Spearman correlation coefficient equals to 0.372 that indicates there is a significant relationship between Machiavellian Believe and spiritual intelligence among athletes (p < 0.05). There is a direct relationship among these variables because the calculated correlation coefficients were positive. It is suggested to the managers of sport organizations and events to hold workshops in order to strengthen philosophical attitude and spiritual intelligence among athletes and champions for achieving higher level of life satisfaction.