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“Am I for real?” Predicting impostor tendencies from self-handicapping and affective components
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Impostors are individuals who believe their successes are not due to their own ability, but because of either luck or the notion that they must work harder than others. The relationship between impostor tendencies and different behavioral and affective variables was examined. With the present study's sample (N = 436), controlling for social desirability, impostor tendencies were significantly correlated with behavioral self-handicapping (r = .52, p < .001), and with shame-proneness (r = .54, p < .001) more than guilt-proneness (r = .28, p < .001). Regression analyses indicated that self-handicapping and shame-proneness were the best predictors of impostor tendencies (r2 = 0.43). Based on these results it seems that strong impostor tendencies are related to, and best predicted by, self-handicapping behaviors and shameprone affect.
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... Indeed, prior research has associated impostorism with elevated reports of shame and has found a relationship between shame (e.g., Hu et al., 2019) and negative mental health outcomes (e.g., Cândea & Szentagotai-Tăta, 2018;Kim et al., 2011). However, studies that examine these constructs in tandem are sparse (e.g., Cowman & Ferrari, 2002;Wei et al., 2020), and scholarship has yet to attend to the role of shame as a risk factor for poor mental health in the context of impostorism among college students of color. Furthermore, research has yet to delineate how the social identities of college students of color (i.e., race, gender, or race-by-gender combination) impact the interplay of impostorism, shame, and negative mental health outcomes. ...
... Empirical studies further support relationships between shame, impostorism, and distress. For example, shame was a strong predictor of impostorism among college students (Cowman & Ferrari, 2002), and medical students with higher impostorism were seven times more likely to report greater shame than individuals with lower levels of impostorism (Hu et al., 2019). Other studies demonstrated how shame and impostorism were positively associated and worked together to impact psychological distress (Wei et al., 2020) and one's ability to accomplish tasks (Hudson & González-Gómez, 2021). ...
... The current study is one of a handful of studies that examines shame and the impostor phenomenon together (c.f., Cowman & Ferrari, 2002;Hudson & González-Gómez, 2021;Wei et al., 2020) and the first study to do so with a multi-racial sample. The findings advance the extant literature by identifying groups at greater risk within the impostor phenomenon and mental health relationship by examining the moderating role of shame-proneness across race, gender, and race-bygender interactions. ...
This study examined the moderating effect of shame-proneness on the relationships between the impostor phenomenon and anxiety and the impostor phenomenon and depression. A secondary objective addressed gaps in the literature by examining group differences for shame-proneness and impostorism. Three hundred and four college students of color (Asian American, Latinx, African American) completed measures for impostorism, psychological distress (anxiety and depression), and shame-proneness. Using Bayesian methods, the moderating role of shame-proneness was tested within the overall sample, as well as within subsamples of race, gender, and race-by-gender, via moderated moderation. Patterns within the data suggested that greater levels of shame-proneness were associated with a more pronounced relationship between impostorism and anxiety. Empirical evidence for this pattern was the strongest for African American participants. In addition, certain groups reported higher scores for shame-proneness (Asian American women) and the impostor phenomenon (Asian Americans). Statistical support for race-by-gender effects was virtually indistinguishable from the statistical threshold but ultimately did not meet the predetermined criteria (probability of direction ≥ 95%). Researchers, clinicians, and university personnel should be cognizant that (a) African American students have heightened vulnerabilities that worsen the effects of the impostor phenomenon, and (b) specific groups are more likely to report higher levels of impostorism and shame-proneness. Future investigations should explore the etiology of these group differences, moderating effects, and interventions that improve the experiences and well-being of Latinx, African American, and Asian American college students.
... IP has several adverse consequences on an individual's functioning, even more concerning the effects on mental health, leading to emotional exhaustion, work-related stress, and work-life con ict, along with perfectionism, burnout, and suicide. [13][14][15][16][17] Lastly, the consequences of IP extend beyond the individual. Self-doubt can lead to feelings of inadequacy when reviewing positions in leadership or promotion. ...
Background: IP is a subjective feeling of intellectual fraud that is predominant in high-achieving individuals regardless of gender. IP is associated with physical and mental health at the individual level. Literature suggests various hypothetical strategies to overcome IP, with limited research on how these strategies are being implemented in healthcare systems. To confront the possible impact of IP within healthcare, it is essential to explore existing educational interventions and understand how these equip individuals and institutions with skills to overcome the effects of IP across a wide variety of professional settings.
Aim: This scoping review aims to understand the educational interventions developed to equip high-performance individuals with skills to manage imposter phenomenon (IP).
Methods: The scoping review will comprise articles found by searching the MEDLINE (Ovid), Psych INFO, SCOPUS, and Web of Science databases, along with gray literature searched through Google Scholar. Studies will be assessed by two independent reviewers and screened against the inclusion criteria for eligibility to be included in the review. All published studies and gray literature, such as reports, commentaries, website content describing an educational intervention to IP, will be included in the scoping review. Interventions not addressing IP such as mimicking syndromes: Capgras syndrome, or isolated symptoms such as burnout will be excluded from the study. Furthermore, studies detailing prevalence of IP without any educational intervention will also be excluded.
Discussion: At an institutional level, IP threatens inclusion and diversity. This is due to the debilitating self-doubt that limits professionals from applying to leadership and management roles within healthcare. This review will provide healthcare professionals with a wider understanding of educational interventions available to tackle IP in their workplace. Further the review will highlight gaps for future research and innovation.
... Para akademisi yang sukses juga sering kali mengungkapkan perasaan keraguan diri, kurangnya rasa memiliki, dan ketidakmampuan serta kurangnya motivasi. Kondisi itu disebut sebagai impostor phenomenon (Clance & Imes, 1978;Cowman & Ferrari, 2002;Hutchins, 2015;Parkman, 2016;Sakulku, 2011;Vaughn, Taasoobshirazi, & Johnson, 2020). Impostor phenomenon merupakan keadaan psikologis ketika individu menganggap dirinya tidak layak atas keberhasilan, prestasi, dan penghargaan yang dimiliki. ...
Pencapaian prestasi dalam bidang akademik tidak hanya memberikan kepuasan dan meningkatnya rasa percaya diri bagi mahasiswa, namun pencapaian tersebut juga dapat memunculkan perasaan tidak layak akan keberhasilan, kondisi ini disebut dengan impostor phenomenon. Fenomena impostor dapat menimbulkan kecemasan, stress dan bahkan depresi jika terus menerus terjadi. Oleh karena itu, mahasiswa membutuhkan resiliensi agar mampu menyelesaikan masalah ini. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui hubungan antara resiliensi dengan impostor phenomenon pada mahasiswa. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kuantitatif dengan melibatkan 297 mahasiswa. Teknik pengumpulan data menggunakan convenience sampling, data penelitian dikumpulkan menggunakan Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale dan Brief Resilience Scale. Analisis data menggunakan teknik korelasi Pearson menunjukkan nilai koefisien korelasi r=-0.249 dengan nilai signifikansi p=0.000 (p0.05). Hasil tersebut menunjukkan bahwa terdapat hubungan negatif antara resiliensi dengan impostor phenomenon pada mahasiswa, artinya semakin tinggi kemampuan resiliensi maka semakin rendah impostor phenomenon dan sebaliknya.
... The impostor phenomenon may influence mental illness stigma and account for some of the variance observed in prior studies. The impostor phenomenon entails a fear of negative evaluation, a belief that any successes were not deserved but instead achieved through sheer luck, and a belief that one's identity is that of a "phony" in that they do not truly possess the intelligence and/or skills needed to have achieved their successes (Clance, 1985;Cowman & Ferrari, 2002;Ferrari & Thompson, 2006;Leary et al., 2000;Thompson et al., 1998Thompson et al., , 2000Sakulku & Alexander, 2011). Psychopathology and the impostor phenomenon are associated with both avoiding ability-dependent goals and pursuing unrealistic, extrinsically motivated goals, particularly related to career and education (Johnson & Carver, 2006;Kumar & Jagacinski, 2006;Michalak & Grosse Holtforth, 2006;Neureiter & Traut-Mattausch, 2016. ...
Persons with mental illness are highly susceptible to experiencing public, anticipated, and internalized mental illness stigma, which can manifest in a myriad of ways to negatively affect quality of life, treatment outcomes, and attainment of personally meaningful goals. Research also shows that the impostor phenomenon and rumination are prominent cognitive processes experienced by persons with mental illness in unique ways. This is the first study to examine the relationship among all three psychological constructs. Survey data were collected from an online sample of 90 participants with one or more professionally diagnosed mental illnesses. Mental illness stigma was assessed with the Inventory of Stigmatizing Experiences and the Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness scale. The impostor phenomenon was assessed with the Leary Impostorism Scale, and rumination was assessed with the Scott-McIntosh Rumination Inventory. Correlational analyses revealed that public, anticipated, and internalized mental illness stigma scores were significantly correlated with both impostor phenomenon and rumination scores. Impostor phenomenon scores were significantly correlated with rumination scores as well. Moderated multiple regression models revealed that the impostor phenomenon moderated the relationship between public mental illness stigma and the distraction dimension of rumination. These results add to the growing body of evidence documenting the nuanced ways in which stigma interacts with other psychological factors to impact persons with mental illness.
... But what of IP? Previous research has shown that experience of IP can actually lend to behaviors that could negatively impact one's productivity and professional trajectory, including declining additional responsibilities/tasks, maintaining a low profile, procrastination, and even selfsabotage. 7,[79][80][81] Alternatively, Gottlieb et al 15 suggest that perhaps there "...may be a 'healthy level' of impostorism which is associated with increased drive and career success." In this sense, there may be a threshold at which IP fuels motivation and drive. ...
Impostor phenomenon has gained increasing attention within the health care and health professions education literature. Although consistently depicted as a debilitating socioemotional experience, studies also suggest a strategic aspect to impostor phenomenon - denoting a conceptual ambiguity to impostor phenomenon that has yet to fully examined. Within this paper, we use humility as a conceptual sparring partner with impostor phenomenon to examine the similarities and differences between the concepts, as well as explore the various nuances associated with impostor phenomenon. By comparing and contrasting impostor phenomenon and humility from interdisciplinary perspectives and within the context of health professions specifically, we not only further refine their meaning and usage within the literature, but also spotlight key areas for future research.
... There are many harms related to IP, including: (a) reinforcement of the stereotype that women do not want to lead (Tarr-Whelan, 2009); (b) unrealistic perfectionism (Cusak, Hughes & Nuhu, 2013;Imes qtd. in Kaplan, 2009;Kets de Vries, 2005;Leung, 2006;Thompson, Foreman, & Martin, 2000); (c) test anxiety (Cusak et al., 2013, Imes qtd. in Kaplan, 2009; (d) self sabotage (Cowman & Ferrari, 2002;Kets de Vries, 2005;Want & Kleitman, 2006); (e) burn out (Kets de Vries, 2005;Leung, 2006;Parkman & Beard, 2008); (f) fear of questioning the status quo (Clance & Imes, 1978;Clance et al., 1995;Parkman & Beard, 2008); (g) dissatisfaction with self performance (Thompson et al., 2000); (h) procrastination (Clance et al., 1995;Kets de Vries, 2005); (i) inability to make a decision (Kets de Vries, 2005); (j) tolerating sexual harassment (Clance et al., 1995); (k) not reaching full potential (Clance & O'Toole, 1987); and (l) higher absenteeism and high employee turnover (Kets de Vries, 2005). ...
The Impostor Phenomenon (IP) has recently reappeared in popular culture as a result of the bestseller Lean In. IP asserts that many successful people feel like frauds that will be discovered in time. Twenty-nine women in leadership were interviewed in this qualitative study, and it was discovered that the majority of them do not have impostor feelings. Their confidence can be attributed to strong relationships with mentors, romantic partners, and other women in leadership.
For many students, the transition from elementary to secondary school is a time of concern and hope for their functioning in their future environment. Because of the uncertainties about the demands of the future environment, it also coincides with the emergence of impostorism for some. This study examined 578 students (306 girls) who responded to questionnaires in Grade 6 and Secondary 1 to determine the relationship between their feelings of impostorism and their expectations of secondary school. It also examined whether the feeling of impostorism in grade 6 contributed to their adjustment to secondary school. The results show a positive relationship between impostorism and negative expectations (r=0.39), but no relationship with positive expectations. Students' impostorism is significantly related to indicators of their motivational, emotional and cognitive adjustment.
The impostor phenomenon (IP) is characterised by a belief that one is not actually intelligent or accomplished, despite objective evidence of success, but rather has fooled others and is therefore vulnerable to discovery as a fraud. Impostor feelings are widespread in the post‐secondary population and may be disproportionately experienced by groups already marginalised within academia (e.g., women, racialised students). The IP may be associated with significant mental health issues and changes long‐term education and career plans; as such, it is imperative that administrators take steps to address impostorism on university and college campuses. The purpose of this review was to summarise factors of the IP from existing research on the experiences and background characteristics of undergraduate, graduate and professional students (i.e., medicine, law). Findings on the subject of IP and gender as well as IP and ethnicity were inconsistent. Most studies found that IP was negatively related to self‐esteem and various dimensions of mental health. The relationship of IP to grade point average was inconsistent but several studies showed a negative association between IP and measures of academic performance. These findings suggest there is a critical need to bring awareness to and address experiences of the IP in the academic community; implications for campus mental health professionals are explored. Limitations of existing research are addressed and directions for future research are discussed.
Context and implications
Rationale for this study
To offer a summary of findings related to experiences of the IP among students in higher education.
Why the new findings matter
IP is negatively associated with multiple mental health concerns, self‐esteem, and measures of academic performance; therefore, interventions are needed to better support students in their academic pursuits.
Implications for higher education personnel (e.g., professors, administrators)
Implications for mental health professionals and students are discussed. Recommendations for intervention include raising awareness and normalising feelings of IP through workshops and orientations, and resource development with a particular focus on practical strategies to support students in coping with feelings of IP. Earlier intervention to manage IP is needed to curb associated mental health issues and deleterious changes to long‐term education and career plans.
Graduate students are increasingly reporting experiencing emotional stress and feelings of imposterism in their graduate education. This chapter describes an exploratory study of STEM doctoral students' imposter phenomenon (IP), academic self-concept, and self-efficacy to gain insight into how these socioemotional constructs influence students' perceived graduate experiences. Forty-four doctoral students completed an IP survey. Twenty-two students with the highest and lowest quartile scores on the IP scale were interviewed. Results showed High-IP and Low-IP students differed in their self-efficacy, academic self-concept, and the emotions they reported feeling when confronted with academic challenges. High-IP respondents were least confident about research design, writing research articles, and creating a research proposal. There was also evidence that students experienced shifting academic self-concept related to being in an interdisciplinary program. The challenges of supporting students' self-efficacy, self-concept, and emotions are discussed.
Developed, on the basis of responses from 608 undergraduate students to the 33-item Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, three short forms of 11, 12, and 13 items. The psychometric characteristics of these three forms and three other short forms developed by Strahan and Gerbasi (1972) were investigated and comparisons made. Results, in the form of internal consistency reliability, item factor loadings, short form with Marlowe-Crowne total scale correlations, and correlations between Marlowe-Crowne short forms and the Edwards Social Desirability Scale, indicate that psychometrically sound short forms can be constructed. Comparisons made between the short forms examined in this investigation suggest the 13-item form as a viable substitute for the regular 33-item Marlowe-Crowne scale.
In 2 experiments, college student Ss were instructed to choose between a drug that allegedly interfered with performance and a drug that allegedly enhanced performance. This choice was the main dependent measure of the experiment. The drug choice intervened between work on soluble or insoluble problems and a promised retest on similar problems. In Exp I with 68 males and 43 females, all Ss received success feedback after their initial problem-solving attempts, thus creating one condition in which the success appeared to be accidental (noncontingent on performance) and one in which the success appeared to be contingent on appropriate knowledge. Males in the noncontingent-success condition were alone in preferring the performance-inhibiting drug, presumably because they wished to externalize probable failure on the retest. The predicted effect, however, did not hold for female Ss. Exp II, with 87 Ss, replicated the unique preference shown by males after noncontingent success and showed the critical importance of success feedback. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).
This study empirically tested prior theoretical speculations and clinical observations concerning the impostor phenomenon. The cognitive and affective experiences of “impostors” and nonimpostors were assessed prior to and following feedback on an important evaluative event. As hypothesized, impostors expected to perform less well and were more anxious than were nonimpostors prior to a midterm exam but did not differ in exam performance. Furthermore, impostors felt affectively worse and suffered a greater loss in state self-esteem than did nonimpostors after subjective failure on the exam, but they did not differ from nonimpostors after subjective success. Analyses performed holding initial trait self-esteem scores constant further revealed that initial self-esteem could account for many of the differences between impostors and nonimpostors. However, the crucial differences between these two groups in postfailure affect and state self-esteem could not be accounted for by the fact that impostors were initia...
This article provides a methodology for mapping an individual's system of social relationships. Three examples of network maps which vary in complexity have been selected to represent the most common issues discussed by over 90 African American professional women during an eight year period. Excerpts from their explanations of these "maps" are used to identify issues pertinent to the social structure and adult development issues of this group. Implications for clinical practitioners working with African American women of professional status are discussed.
The two studies reported in this article examined the psychometric properties of the Self-Handicapping Scale (SHS), an individual difference measure of the tendency to engage in behaviors that strategically protect self-esteem. In the first study, initial analyses indicated that the SHS possessed one major factor and several trivial factors. As a result, an abbreviated form of the scale was created; this short form possesses internal consistency higher than that found in the original scale. Correlational analyses with both versions indicated that high self-handicapping was related reliably to high public self-consciousness, high social anxiety, high other-directedness, high depression, and low self-esteem. These relations were stronger when the short form was used, suggesting its psychometric as well as practical utility. In a second study, the validity of the short form was examined by administering it to a sample of students along with a questionnaire that requested information concerning extenuating circumstances that would limit the students' demonstration of ability on a course exam. The excuses questionnaire was administered after the first exam and immediately prior to the second exam. High self-handicappers claimed more excuses both after the first exam and prior to the second exam. Taken together, these findings suggest the utility of the abbreviated SHS for future research.
A study was conducted to explore the role of individual differences in self-presentational concerns on a public form of self-handicapping. Male and female introductory psychology students, high and low in public self-consciousness, chose either facilitating or interfering music prior to taking a test described either as a valid predictor of academic success or as having unknown predictive ability. In addition, in an attempt to induce protective and acquisitive self-presentational styles, hay the subjects were given instructions that emphasized the likelihood of failure, while the remainder were given instructions that underscored the likelihood of success. Males handicapped more than females. High public self-conscious individuals handicapped more than their low public self-conscious counterparts, but only when they confronted a test characterized as valid. The success-versus failure-oriented instructions had no effect in the present study.
The present study investigated whether the short version of the Self-Handicapping Scale (SHS; Rhodewalt, 1990) is a reliable measure of self-handicapping outside of academic settings. Across 3 samples of athletes, analyses indicated that SHS items were not very meaningful to respondents and the subscales lacked internal consistency, particularly the effort subscale (α and composite reliability estimates ranged from 0.36 to 0.49). Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the SHS had an unstable factor structure as the majority of fit indices were well below the 0.90 level of acceptability. These findings suggest that the SHS is not a reliable instrument for identifying trait self-handicappers in sport achievement settings. Rather, the SHS may be a domain-specific measure of academic self-handicapping.
Extensive attention has been paid over the past three decades to the stressors involved in training in the health professions. Although empirical studies have identified demographic subgroups of students most likely to become distressed during training, less research has been carried out to evaluate the impact of students' personality characteristics on their adjustment. Severe perfectionism is one such personality trait that has been shown to increase the risk for anxiety and depressive disorders in other populations. Another set of personality traits linked to increased psychological problems has been labelled the `impostor phenomenon', which occurs when high achieving individuals chronically question their abilities and fear that others will discover them to be intellectual frauds. Both perfectionism and the impostor phenomenon would seem to be pertinent factors in the adjustment of health professional students; however, these character traits have not been empirically examined in this population. In the present study psychological distress, perfectionism and impostor feelings were assessed in 477 medical, dental, nursing and pharmacy students. Consistent with previous reports, the results showed that a higher than expected percentage of students (27·5%) were currently experiencing psychiatric levels of distress. Strong associations were found between current psychological distress, perfectionism and impostor feelings within each programme and these character traits were stronger predictors of psychological adjustment than most of the demographic variables associated previously with distress in health professional students. Implications for future research, limitations of this study and clinical recommendations are discussed.