14 undergraduate students who attributed success in a mid-year examination to external factors performed more poorly on the end-of-year examination and received a lower final grade than 169 students who internalised their successful examination performance. This is congruent with Thompson's 1997 suggestion that externalising success is a common factor in performance-limiting behaviour.
References
1.
ThompsonT. (1997) External attributions for success and avoidance of failure. Psychological Reports, 81, 891–896.
