Health locus of control, the extent to which individuals attribute their health to their own actions or to environmental circumstances and powerful external agents, is a patient characteristic that has not been closely studied with respect to the physician-patient relationship. An internal locus of control suggests that positive health results from one’s own doing, willpower or sustained efforts. In contrast, an external locus of control is marked by belief in the influence of fate, powerful others, or supernatural occurrences upon one’s health (Wallston, Wallston, & Devellis, 1978).