The Relationships among Students Goals and Their Machiavellian Personality Beliefs

This study was conducted to investigate the relationships among students’goals and their machiavellian personality beliefs. Brandtstadter’s theory of personal goals (1984, 1989, 1999), and machiavellian personality theory (Christie, & Geis, 1970; Sutton, & Keogh, 2001; Andreou, 2004) were used to measure the developmental goals and machiavellian beliefs. Three hundred and fifteen university students (178 girls and 137 boys) were selected by random cluster sampling method. Mean age was 20.1 years and standard deviation was 1.8 years. Two sc a l e s; K id d ie Ma c h Sc a l e a n d Developmental Life Goals Scale, were used. Results indicated that the students pursued six main goals including; social security, esteem, social relation, personal security, avoidance security, and survival goals. The results also showed that there was a complex combination of machiavellian beliefs and personal goals. In general, students view the people as honest and faithful however, th ey b elie ved that it is wise to be manipulative, in some respects, in order to achieve their personal goals. There were also gender differences across the variables. At the end, some recommendations were added.