A survey of the causal attributions of successful and unsuccessful medical school applicants yields evidence that attribution theories are applicable to impactful events outside the laboratory. Applicants viewed admission decisions based on controllable factors as fairer than those based on external or ascribed factors, and they demonstrated ego-defensive attributional tendencies by rating controllable factors as more important causes of success than of failure. The extension of social-psychological theories outside the laboratory through survey and other techniques is advocated.
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