Investigation of machiavellism personality characteristics of sports sciences faculty students

The aim of this study is to examine the Machiavellian personality traits of students in the Faculty of Sports Sciences. In line with this objective, a cross-sectional research design was employed, with a study group consisting of 394 students who are enrolled in sports sciences programs and participated voluntarily. In this context, data collection was conducted using the Machiavellianism (MACH IV) scale, developed by Christie and Geis (1970) and adapted into Turkish by Kavak (1999). The data obtained from university students were analyzed using the SPSS 26 software. Initially, the skewness and kurtosis values of the data were examined, and it was determined that these values were within the range of -1.55 to +1.5, indicating a normal distribution. Therefore, parametric tests were used for data analysis. Independent sample t-tests were conducted to compare the Machiavellian tendencies of university students based on gender, receiving psychological support, and being a licensed athlete, while one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare Machiavellian tendencies according to class level. Additionally, the relationship between the age of university students and their Machiavellian tendencies was examined using Pearson correlation analysis. The results of this study indicate that the Machiavellian behaviors of students enrolled in the Faculty of Sports Sciences are relatively high. Furthermore, when examining the demographic variables, it was found that there were no significant differences in Machiavellianism levels based on gender, class level, receiving psychological support, or being a licensed athlete. However, when analyzing the mean scores related to Machiavellianism, it was observed that male students had higher mean scores for both Machiavellian and non-Machiavellian behaviors compared to female students. Additionally, as students' age and class level increased, their non-Machiavellian behaviors also increased.