Psychological determinants of a medical career.

To test the hypothesis that reparation for childhood experience is a factor in the choice of a medical career, a questionnaire was given to first year students in medicine, with first year law students as a control group. When students who chose the same occupation as their parents were eliminated from the sample, male medical students were more likely to have experienced illness in the family during childhood than male law students. Both male and female law students were more likely to have experienced legal problems in the family during childhood.