Modeling Altruism Based on Moral Intelligence, Spiritual Intelligence, and Social Development with the Mediation of Guilt in Students
Keywords:
Moral Intelligence, Spiritual Intelligence, Social Development, Guilt, AltruismAbstract
Objective: This study aimed to model altruism based on moral intelligence, spiritual intelligence, and social development, with the mediating role of guilt among university students.
Methods and Materials: This correlational study employed structural equation modeling (SEM) and was conducted on a sample of 480 students from Islamic Azad University during the 2022–2023 academic year. Data collection instruments included the Moral Intelligence Questionnaire (Lennick & Kiel, 2005), Spiritual Intelligence Questionnaire (Abdollahzadeh, 2008), Social Development Scale (Weiland, 1953), Altruism Scale (Carlo et al., 2003), and Guilt Scale (Gockel & Jones, 1988). Data analysis involved confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, Pearson correlation coefficient, and path analysis using AMOS software.
Findings: Findings revealed significant negative correlations between moral intelligence, spiritual intelligence, and social development with guilt. Moreover, each of these predictors had a significant positive association with altruism. Guilt also had a significant positive relationship with altruism and served as a mediator in the proposed model. The revised model demonstrated a good fit (RMSEA=0.077; CFI=0.921; χ²/df=2.56).
Conclusion: The results suggest that enhancing moral intelligence, spiritual intelligence, and social development contributes positively to altruistic behavior in students, and that guilt plays a meaningful mediating psychological role in this relationship.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Elaheh Rezaeifard (Author); Javanshir Asadi; Arasto Mirani, Bahram Bakhtiari Saeed (Author)
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