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Groups of Russian-speaking and native Israel citizens (adults and adolescents) were compared according to their behavioral attitudes by using the BASE test - a projective questionnaire for the estimation of behavioral attitudes (search activity, stereotyped activity, chaotic activity and renunciation of search). Native citizens, girls and adult women, displayed a lower level of stereotyped activity and a higher level of chaotic activity in comparison to their Russian-speaking peers. The ratio between search activity and stereotyped activity was higher in native citizens. Authors propose that the difference between groups is determined by the difference in the traditions of growing up in Israel and in former USSR: the conditions for growing up are more free and with less pressure and requirements towards children in Israel. It can decrease an attitude towards the stereotyped behavior and increase not only the tendency towards search activity but also toward chaotic activity thus increasing the longevity of maturation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]