The effects of the Yom Kippur War on values of Israeli female students

The Rokeach Terminal Value Scale and an attitude questionnaire were administered to two similar groups of female Israeli students before and after the Yom Kippur War. The second group also responded to a questionnaire about the effects of the war on the importance attributed to each of the values. The results were as follow: (a) Subjects stated that after the war 14 out of the 18 values in the Rokeach list increased in importance. (b) The war brought about a significant increase in the relative importance (rank) of 4 values (Pleasure, National Security, Happiness, and Mature Love), and a significant decrease in Equality. (c) No attitude change was found in respect to issues related to the war itself. (d) Values accounted for a smaller percent of the variance in attitudes after the war than they did before it. In view of these findings it is suggested that a distinction be made between relative and absolute importance within a value system.