Behavioural attitudes and the level of distress in the process of adaptation to the new society

There are no data of the relationships between the level of distress and the subject's behavioural attitudes. We have investigated these relationships on 201 subjects, 80 men and 121 women, after 5 years of emigration from the former USSR to Israel. The level of distress measured by using the Talbieh Brief Distress Inventory and behavioural attitudes estimated by using the test BASE were compared in subjects differing in their level of adaptation to the new society. Search Activity was higher in men than in women, in men it was almost twice as high as stereotyped behaviour, while in women both behavioural attitudes were almost equal. Subjects with different levels of distress do not differ significantly on behavioural attitudes. However, Search Activity in stressful conditions display a tendency to be more flexible in men than in women. Stereotyped behaviour under stressful conditions displays a general tendency to be low. In the absence of stress a tendency toward the stereotyped activity tends to dominate in women, while in the presence of stress they demonstrate a tendency toward the relative increase of panic and passive behaviour. The role of gender in behavioural attitudes in normal and stressful conditions is discussed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.