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Are all impostors created equal? Exploring gender differences in the impostor phenomenon-performance link
Abstract
Some individuals report feeling inauthentic at work, and fear being found out as a fake or as someone who does not deserve their status or reputation. Termed the imposter phenomenon (IP), this pervasive feeling has recently gained traction and recognition in organizational research. However, the relationship between IP and performance is still not well understood. We present two studies that explore the relationship between IP, performance, and gender under two different conditions: feedback (Study 1, N = 268) and accountability (Study 2, N = 250). Results indicate that male IPs react significantly more negatively under conditions of negative feedback and high accountability. These findings reveal a complex relationship between IP and gender which demonstrate that imposters’ gender could potentially exacerbate the negative effects of IP on work outcomes.
... Gender has long been associated with imposterism, since the original studies found that women are disproportionately affected (Clance & Imes, 1978). However, contemporary research suggests a more nuanced picture in relation to gender (e.g., Badawy, 2018), and, as the quote below indicates, IP may be more related to a lack of equal representation than gender, per se. When it comes to intersections of race and gender, the quote below, demonstrates how some students experience their identity in the context of a white, elite, Western, maledominated university. ...
... Research investigating how discrimination, minority status stress and microaggressions fuel experiences of imposterism amongst minoritised groups is beginning to emerge Bernard et al., 2018;McClain et al., 2016;Fakunle, 2021), and our findings add to this. To help combat IP amongst minoritised groups it is important that organisations bolster and enforce their non-discriminatory practices (Badawy et al, 2018). This includes a need for practical staff training in dealing with racism and discrimination, and training to help staff recognise and respect cultural differences and feel confident in facilitating integrative cultural relationships (Bunce et al, 2019). ...
... Furthermore, professional mentoring could also be beneficial for students through the creation of a constructive relationship which can aid the development of realistic competence expectations (Badawy et al, 2018). Dedicated discussion of imposterism could be integrated within academic adviser and supervisory roles. ...
Imposter Phenomenon (IP) involves experiencing persistent feelings of perceived insufficiency and fraudulence, despite contrary evidence of objective success or accomplishment. The aim of this research was to explore factors which may trigger or maintain feelings of imposterism in postgraduate students from minoritised racial backgrounds, and investigate students’ perspectives of what Higher Education (HE) institutions could do to help prevent or reduce IP. All postgraduate, students from a large UK university who self-identified as being from a minoritised racial background and felt they had experience of IP were invited to take part in an online survey. Demographic information was collected, and participants were asked open-ended qualitative questions about their feelings and experiences of IP. In total 71 students completed the survey. Four main themes were developed using thematic analysis: Hidden away; Problematic awareness; Hell is other people; Our complicated lives. We report these themes in turn, exploring the nuanced and contextual qualities that frame our participants’ experiences of IP. Imposterism is seen to present a range of challenges for students who identify as members of minoritised racial groups, and our findings emphasise the relatedness between representation, belonging, and feelings of imposterism. We suggest that imposterism should be investigated as a multi-layered phenomenon that is potentially more likely to impact students from minoritised backgrounds who lack representation in UK HE settings. We conclude by offering a series of recommendations for HE institutions, which could start to address some of these issues.
... More studies are thus warranted. Moreover, there is some evidence that gender differences exist in the response to IP (e.g., Badawy et al., 2018), yet it is unclear whether IP differentially influences the way men and women manage their careers. To address these research gaps, we attempt to explore the mechanism behind the relationship between IP and career preparatory activities, and investigate the possible moderating role played by gender (i.e., being a woman or a man) in the above relationship. ...
... Gender differences in the intensity of IP have been investigated for years, but the findings are inconclusive (Bravata et al., 2020). Recently, scholars instead pay attention to the differential responses of men and women to IP, and more studies along this line have been called for (e.g., Badawy et al., 2018). ...
... Moreover, to avoid exposure, female impostors tend to engage in more maladaptive perfectionistic behaviors, consuming more self-regulatory resources compared to male impostors. Badawy et al. (2018) reported that female impostors engage in more over-preparation than male impostors. Research has showed that upon negative things, women ruminate more than men (Johnson & Whisman, 2013). ...
Despite the well-established findings regarding the negative effect of impostor phenomenon (IP) on individuals’ career development, we know little about its underlying mechanism. It is also unclear whether IP differentially affects the way men and women manage their careers. Drawn upon ego depletion theory, we explored the relationship among IP, gender, ego depletion, and career preparatory activities via an experiment and a two-wave survey conducted in China. The results showed that the negative relationship between IP and career preparatory activities was mediated by ego depletion. We further found that gender moderated the indirect effect of IP on career preparatory activities via ego depletion, and this effect was stronger for women than men. Based on these new findings, some theoretical and practical implications were discussed.
... Impostors show externalinstable-specific attributions of positive performance outcomes, while attributions of events in social contexts and negative events are unrelated to the IP (e.g., Brauer and Wolf, 2016). Studies analyzing self-reports, vignettes, and experiments showed that the IP robustly relates to externalizing success and experiencing negative emotions after positive feedback (e.g., Thompson et al., 1998;Brauer and Wolf, 2016;Badawy et al., 2018;Vaughn et al., 2020;Brauer and Proyer, 2022). Thus, Impostors discount their ability by attributing their positive performances and successes externally to chance and luck. ...
... The IP is unrelated to age, study fields, and vocations (Sakulku and Alexander, 2011). Findings on gender differences are mixed, with some studies showing that women experience on average higher levels of IP than men, but effect sizes are small (e.g., Chrisman et al., 1995;Brauer and Wolf, 2016;Badawy et al., 2018). Comparisons between students and working professionals showed that the IP is more pronounced among university students, with robust effects of medium size (Hedges' gs ≈ 0.50; Proyer, 2017, 2019;Neureiter and Traut-Mattausch, 2016). ...
... Thus, selfperceptions of competence play a role in learners' inclinations to L2 use. There is robust evidence that the IP is characterized by low academic self-evaluations, academic self-esteem, and inclinations to underestimate their abilities (e.g., Cozzarelli and Major, 1990;Thompson et al., 1998;Badawy et al., 2018;Brauer and Proyer, 2022), and that self-perceived competence relates positively to WTC (e.g., Dewaele, 2008;Piechurska-Kuciel, 2011;Lockley, 2013). Further, Yamini and Mandanizadeh (2011) showed that the IP relates negatively to self-efficacy in L2 abilities. ...
The Impostor Phenomenon (IP) describes experiences of perceived intellectual fraudulence despite the existence of objectively good performances, and it is a robust predictor of experiences and outcomes in higher education. We examined the role of the IP in the domain of second language (L2) acquisition by testing its relations with a robust predictor of L2 use, willingness to communicate (WTC). We collected self-reports of 400 adult Iranian L2 learners and tested the associations between the IP and WTC. As expected, we found a negative association between IP and WTC (r = −0.13). When testing a mediation model with perceived competence and communication anxiety as parallel mediators, we found evidence for full mediation via perceived competence. Our findings show the importance of considering self-evaluations in the domain of L2 acquisition. Further implications and limitations are discussed.
... There have been a number of factors related to the emergence of impostor phenomenon, including personality (Bernard et al., 2002;Chae et al., 1995;Clance, 1985;Ross et al., 2001;Thompson et al., 1998;Thompson et al., 2000;Ferarri & Thompson, 2006), gender (Badawy et al., 2018;Cusack et al., 2013;Patzak et al., 2017), ethnicity (Ahlfield, 2009Ewing et al., 1996;Lige et al., 2017;Peteet et al., 2015), and family factors (Bussotti, 1990;Clance, 1985;King & Cooley, 1995;Sonnak & Towell, 2001). However, similar to earlier critiques, many of these predictors have shown inconsistencies and a lack of clarity across time, which could be a factor of the different measurements used (Mak et al., 2019). ...
... Additionally, Badawy and colleagues (2018) found that men responded with significantly higher anxiety when presented with performance related cues (e.g., negative feedback) when compared to women. Men also showed less effort and poor performance (i.e., withdrawal) when "held accountable", whereas women were more likely to exhibit increased effort and better performance (i.e., overworking) after receiving negative feedback (Badawy et al., 2018). This may map onto the different societal pressures faced by different genders (i.e., the belief that women must work harder; Badawy et al., 2018), and suggests that men and women may cope differently with their impostor feelings (Hutchins et al., 2018). ...
... Men also showed less effort and poor performance (i.e., withdrawal) when "held accountable", whereas women were more likely to exhibit increased effort and better performance (i.e., overworking) after receiving negative feedback (Badawy et al., 2018). This may map onto the different societal pressures faced by different genders (i.e., the belief that women must work harder; Badawy et al., 2018), and suggests that men and women may cope differently with their impostor feelings (Hutchins et al., 2018). For example, men may be more likely to cope through externalizing behaviours (e.g., substance abuse), while women may be more likely to cope by internalizing behaviours (e.g., depression, anxiety). ...
Despite growing attention surrounding impostor phenomenon (also known as “imposter syndrome”), recent reviews have suggested that current measures may be inadequate in capturing the complex and multifaceted nature of this construct (i.e., thoughts, feelings, and behaviours). The objective of my dissertation research program was to clarify the theoretical conceptualization of impostor phenomenon based on experiences in an achievement-oriented setting, and to develop a novel and psychometrically valid method of measuring this construct. I began by conducting an extensive review of the literature and developing an item pool for a novel impostor phenomenon assessment. I then conducted exploratory factor analyses (Study 1) and confirmatory factor analyses (Study 2) to assess the initial item pool and to determine the factor structure and initial psychometric properties (e.g., convergent and divergent validity) of the novel Impostor Phenomenon Assessment (IPA; Study 2 and 3). As an extension to Study 3, I also examined the longitudinal stability of impostor phenomenon and correlates with trait variables and psychological distress across the academic year (baseline and six follow-up timepoints). Results suggested excellent psychometric properties for the novel IPA. Longitudinal findings demonstrated that impostor phenomenon was relatively stable in individuals over time, with intercepts significantly varying as a function of gender and academic year. Model findings for impostor phenomenon showed that self-esteem, self-critical perfectionism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and rigid perfectionism were significant predictors. Additionally, cross-lagged panel analyses suggested partial support for a causal effect of impostor phenomenon on psychological distress across time. These findings offer preliminary evidence for the reliability and validity of the IPA as a novel measure of impostor phenomenon and are the first to examine the stability of impostor phenomenon in individuals over time.
... When conceptualizing the phenomenon, much of the existing theoretical and empirical work applies a decidedly affective lens. For example, scholars typically invoke phrases like "feelings of phoniness," "intense feelings of inauthenticity in their accomplishments," and a "fear of being found out or exposed" when describing the phenomenon (e.g., Badawy, Gazdag, Bentley, & Brouer, 2018;Hutchins et al., 2018;McDowell et al., 2015;Vergauwe et al., 2015). The application of an affective lens has been generative. ...
... To control for baseline ability, I used the organization's baseline performance ratings for the employees in my sample (a "3," "2," or "1" rating, with "3" equating to the top performers and "1" equating to the bottom performers). Finally, given the racial, gender, and tenure effects that commonly come to mind in discussions of the impostor phenomenon (e.g., Badawy et al., 2018;Bernard et al., 2017;Christensen et al., 2016), I also controlled for race (1 5 people of color; 0 5 White), gender (1 5 female, 0 5 male), and role tenure (in 0.25 year increments). ...
... This sits in contrast to the common view that the phenomenon is gendered, given that it was first documented among a group of high-achieving women (Clance & Imes, 1978). Yet, it is in line with recent findings (e.g., Badawy et al., 2018;Bravata et al., 2019;Gravois, 2007). Future work could consider the role of gender as a moderator to effects found as opposed to an antecedent. ...
Prevailing wisdom paints the impostor phenomenon as detrimental. In this work, I seek to rebalance the existing conversation around this phenomenon by highlighting that it may also have interpersonal benefits. To identify these benefits, I revisit seminal theorizing to advance the construct of workplace impostor thoughts, which I define as the belief that others overestimate one’s competence at work. Incorporating theory on contingencies of self-worth, I present an integrative model that outlines why such thoughts may be positively associated with other-perceived interpersonal effectiveness and why they may not be. I test my theory across four studies (N=3603) that feature survey, video, and pre-registered experimental data. I find that employees who more frequently have such thoughts are evaluated as more interpersonally effective because they adopt a more other-focused orientation. I do not find that this interpersonal benefit comes at the expense of competence-related outcomes (i.e., performance, selection)—a point I revisit in my future directions. When examining my theorized competing pathway, I find that whereas workplace impostor thoughts do somewhat encourage those who have them to self-handicap—consistent with prevailing wisdom—such thoughts do not operate through self-handicapping to harm other-perceived interpersonal effectiveness. I conclude by situating my findings in light of prior work.
... Castro et al., 2004;Cowman and Ferrari, 2002), even though some evidence suggests that women experience more of them (e.g. Badawy et al., 2018;Clance and Imes, 1978;Cowie et al., 2018;Gibson-Beverly and Schwartz, 2008;Kumar and Jagacinski, 2006). These findings highlight inconclusive results with regard to gender's effect on impostor fears and the need for further research. ...
... Castro et al., 2004;Cowman and Ferrari, 2002), by others, women experience more of them (e.g. Badawy et al., 2018;Cowie et al., 2018). The reason for these contradictory findings is unknown. ...
... In both studies, gender did not influence impostor fears, which is contrary to some literature (e.g. Badawy et al., 2018;Gibson-Beverly and Schwartz, 2008;Kumar and Jagacinski, 2006), but similar to some others (e.g. Castro et al., 2004;Cowman and Ferrari, 2002). ...
Purpose
Although the impostor phenomenon is attributed to childhood experiences, theory on achievement motivation indicates that achievement-related fears can also be elicited by the context. Using achievement goal theory as a base, the authors investigate the effect of context-dependent predictors, job-fit, career stage and organisational tenure, on impostor fears. The authors also examined gender and the achievement-related traits, self-efficacy and locus of control, as predictors of impostor fears to advance knowledge on antecedents to impostor fears.
Design/methodology/approach
Two studies were conducted with 270 and 280 participants, each. In Study 1, a subset of 12 respondents participated in follow-up interviews.
Findings
Impostor fears tended to be predicted by organisational tenure and career stage in both studies and job-fit in Study 1. Self-efficacy and locus of control predicted impostor fears. Men and women reported similar levels of impostor fears.
Practical implications
The authors demonstrate the importance of context in eliciting impostor fears and partially support initial descriptions of antecedents to impostor fears. The findings contribute to the development of targeted managerial practices that can help with the development of interventions, such as orientation programmes, that will enhance socialisation processes and mitigate impostor fears.
Originality/value
The literature on imposter fears has not addressed their situational predictors, which the authors argue are important elements in the genesis and maintenance of impostor fears. The authors draw on achievement goal theory to explain the pattern of findings related to key situational characteristics and their influence on imposter fears. The findings for Sri Lanka, on personality predictors, are similar to those reported in studies focused on North America providing evidence of cross-cultural applicability of the concept.
... Topping and Kimmel (1985) found that male faculty members had higher impostor ratings than female faculty members [27]. Moreover, evidence from a systematic review suggested no gender difference in the rates of IP [28]. On the other hand, recent large-scale meta-analytical findings revealed that, despite previously mixed findings, women overall scored more highly than men on impostorism, with this gender disparity being more prominent in Europe and North America [29]. ...
... On the other hand, recent large-scale meta-analytical findings revealed that, despite previously mixed findings, women overall scored more highly than men on impostorism, with this gender disparity being more prominent in Europe and North America [29]. Further IP research has also suggested different effects of IP on performance across genders [28]. Given that the current sample consisted mostly of women in higher education, it aims to contribute to this ongoing exploration of the gender dimension of IP. ...
Help-seeking behavior requires both components of metacognition—monitoring (being aware of the need for help) and control (initiating the help-seeking action). Difficulties in initiating help-seeking, therefore, can be indicative of a metacognitive breakdown, for instance, when a student believes that a gap in knowledge is something to hide. To explore the relationship between knowing that one needs help and actually seeking it, we examined the potential influences of impostorism, which refers to the feeling of being a “fraud”, despite one’s objective accomplishments. Participants were asked to solve math reasoning and verbal reasoning insight problems, while also being given a “help” button that could be pressed at any time in order to get the solution. Results showed that, overall, students were more likely to ask for help with math than verbal reasoning problems—help also correlated with boosted performance. There was also a slight indication that individuals who scored relatively high on impostorism were numerically less likely to seek help and waited longer to do so for the math problems. Our findings suggest that a fear of being exposed as an impostor may hinder one’s help-seeking behaviors, especially in more challenging subjects, such as math.
... The prevailing narrative suggests that IP disproportionately affects women due to societal expectations, a stance bolstered by subsequent studies (Badawy et al., 2018;Cokley et al., 2018;Patzak et al., 2017). However, recent empirical evidence presents a more nuanced picture, challenging the notion of IP as a gender-specific issue, particularly within the context of management roles (Kumar et al., 2021;Leonhardt et al., 2017;Rohrmann et al., 2016). ...
... We propose a virtuous cycle model that enables women to overcome the negative consequences of IP through communication, good habits, and self-reflection. This model is particularly relevant from a gender perspective, considering the observed differences between men and women in their susceptibility to some aspects of IP, like perfectionism, and their emotional coping strategies (Badawy et al., 2018;Hoang, 2013;Patzak et al., 2017). ...
Purpose
This research explores the impostor phenomenon (IP) within the context of gender and leadership, aiming to transform impostor feelings into catalysts for leadership empowerment and positive career outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
Utilizing grounded theory, this study conducts in-depth interviews with 34 female Spanish senior executives to analyze their experiences with IP.
Findings
The research reveals that top executive women are not only affected by IP but can also harness it to foster personal and professional growth. It identifies key strategies – such as self-reflection, effective communication and cultivating positive habits – that enable women to transform IP into a lever for enhancing their careers. This approach leads to a proposed virtuous cycle model that empowers women to overcome the negative impacts of IP and advance their leadership capabilities.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on gender and leadership by offering insights into the gendered nuances of IP. By framing IP as a potential catalyst for growth rather than a barrier, the study provides practical tools for human resource (HR) departments to promote gender diversity at senior levels. It also advocates for HR practices to dismantle internal barriers to women’s career progression and address conscious and unconscious gender biases.
... Many researchers have considered the possibility of demographic group differences in experiences of impostor feelings but there are few investigations in this area. Quantitative studies on the IP and sex have found mixed results, with some showing higher scores among female participants compared to male (e.g., Badawy et al., 2018;Bernard & Neblett, 2018;Brauer & Proyer, 2019;Cohen & McConnell, 2019;Cokley et al., 2018;Holliday et al., 2020) and others showing no sex-based difference in IP scores (e.g., Blondeau & Awad, 2018;Castro et al., 2004;McClain et al., 2016;Wang et al., 2019). Likewise, the relationship between ethnicity and IP is unclear, with one study finding differences between groups of minority students (Cokley et al., 2013) but other studies finding no relationship (e.g., Cohen & McConnell, 2019;Cokley et al., 2017Cokley et al., , 2018Holliday et al., 2020;Tao & Gloria, 2019). ...
... Female students were also less likely to report never having experienced the IP. These results suggest that impostor experiences may be both more commonly-experienced and painful for female students, which supports many previous studies showing higher scores on IP measures among female participants (e.g., Badawy et al., 2018;Bernard & Neblett, 2018;Brauer & Proyer, 2017, 2019Cohen & McConnell, 2019). ...
The impostor phenomenon (IP) is an internalized feeling of fraudulence characterized by beliefs that one’s personal successes are due to external factors (e.g., luck) rather than internal attributes. Individuals who suffer from impostor feelings may feel that they are not really intelligent or capable but have instead fooled others. Written descriptions of IP experiences were provided by 879 graduate and undergraduate students and submitted to content analysis. Nine major themes were identified across three categories: causes (i.e., novel experiences, challenges, everyday academic interactions, and high expectations), feelings and impact (i.e., negative psychophysiological symptoms and negative thoughts and emotions), and management (i.e., negative, neutral, and positive). Implications for addressing these feelings in post-secondary settings are considered. Keywords: higher education; individual differences; stress/coping; content analysis; qualitative research Le phénomène de l'imposteur (PI) est un sentiment de fraude intériorisé, caractérisé par la conviction que les succès personnels sont dus à des facteurs externes (par exemple, la chance) plutôt qu'à des attributs internes. Les personnes qui souffrent du sentiment d'imposture peuvent avoir l'impression qu'elles ne sont pas vraiment intelligentes ou capables, mais qu'elles ont plutôt trompé les autres. Des descriptions écrites d'expériences de PI ont été fournies par 879 étudiants de premier et deuxième cycles et ont été soumises à une analyse de contenu. Neuf thèmes principaux ont été identifiés dans trois catégories : les causes (expériences nouvelles, défis, interactions académiques quotidiennes et attentes élevées), les sentiments et l'impact (symptômes psychophysiologiques négatifs, pensées et émotions négatives) et la gestion (négative, neutre et positive). Les implications de la prise en compte de ces sentiments dans le cadre de l'enseignement post-secondaire sont examinées. Mots clés : enseignement supérieur ; différences individuelles ; stress/capacités d’adaptation ; analyse de contenu ; recherche qualitative
... IP feelings have been associated with higher anxiety [1] and underestimation of talents and accomplishments [8,13], both of which impact outcomes like retention [24]. IP is prevalent in underrepresented groups [9,24], making it important for us to consider in computing, where retention of minorities is a critical challenge. ...
... They attribute their successes to external factors such as luck instead of their actions [8]. IP experiences have been linked to higher anxiety [1], underestimation of talents and accomplishments [8,11,13,21], and reduced persistence in STEM [24]. ...
... Up to 82% of participants sampled in past studies report some level of impostor feelings (Bravata et al., 2019), suggesting that feeling as though one does not belong may be the norm rather than the exception on college and university campuses. Some sources point to high or higher levels of the IP in women (Badawy et al., 2018), students of minoritised identities (Cokley et al., 2013) and first-generation students (Craddock et al., 2011). Impostor feelings may increase marginalisation of these groups in academic spaces and contribute to their disproportionate likelihood of leaving their academic programmes. ...
... In another experimental study of IP, failure and the self-serving bias, female undergraduate students with high IP scores were more likely to claim handicaps (e.g., headaches or fatigue) in a humiliating failure condition but not in success or face-saving failure conditions (Ferrari & Thompson, 2006). In a series of studies that tested the impacts of fictitious mid-task feedback and accountability, Badawy et al. (2018) identified that experimental conditions affected men and women with higher IP scores quite differently; whereas men demonstrated higher anxiety and lower performance in negative feedback and high accountability conditions, women were more anxious in a low accountability condition but performed better after receiving negative feedback. In a series of studies with undergraduate participants, Leary et al. (2000) showed that participants with high scores on a measure of IP expressed lower expectations of their performance, but only in public conditions. ...
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.
... In fact, past research has shown that the impostor phenomenon impacts outcomes at work. Badawy et al. (2018) point to several negative feelings and attitudes displayed by people experiencing the impostor phenomenon, such as low self-efficacy, low affective commitment, low citizenship behaviors and biased managerial decision making. Taken together, these can negatively impact the career progression. ...
... Moreover, the study shows that 85% of respondents believe that other women feel the same way, but men are less affected by such feelings, with 74% believing that men do not question themselves the way women do. On the one hand, Badawy et al. (2018) found that, among those with impostor feelings, men react more negatively under conditions of negative feedback and high accountability and experience worse performances. The authors attribute these results to existing gender norms that expect men to be more competent. ...
Purpose
Building on the premise that top managers' characteristics affect firm outcomes, the study aims to examine whether the impostor feelings of top managers are associated with firm performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses survey and regression estimation.
Findings
The results show that there is no strong association between the impostor phenomenon and firm performance, when considering the overall sample. However, in the case of women who experience strong impostor feelings, performance is negatively affected. There is no evidence that being a CEO or workload are mechanisms that explain this result.
Practical implications
Improving the understanding of whether top manager impostor feelings sabotage or improve firm performance can encourage managers to engage in preventive actions to overcome or explore its effects adequately so that positive firm outcomes are fostered.
Originality/value
Despite the economic importance of how top managers' judgment affects their decisions, little is known about how the cognitive frames of their top managers affect firm outcomes. In particular, there is no clear understanding of how top managers' feelings of inadequacy, intellectual phoniness and deceitfulness (the impostor phenomenon) affect firm profitability.
... The phenomenon is common among high-achieving individuals. While the relationship between IP and performance is complex, IP has been linked to higher anxiety [3] and lower self-efficacy [21], which can impact performance outcomes such as retention [32]. ...
... As a result, they fear that others will decide or discover that they are frauds and do not deserve the success they have enjoyed [12]. IP experiences have been linked to negative factors, such as higher anxiety [3] and underestimation of talents and accomplishments [12,16,21,29], that impact important outcomes such as retention [32]. The IP is a general phenomenon that is experienced by high achieving individuals from a range of backgrounds [11,12,16,26], but it has been specifically studied in STEM graduate students [7,30,32]. ...
... Reviewing the literature using student samples, we can find many recent studies in which there are no significant gender differences in impostor tendencies (Blondeau & Awad, 2018;Canning et al., 2019;Wang et al., 2019). However, there are also many studies with student samples in which there is a significant gender correlation with the impostor phenomenon, and among these, more studies demonstrate higher impostor ratings for females than for males (Badawy et al., 2018;Cokley et al., 2018;Cowie et al., 2018;Patzak et al., 2017). Gender effects in impostor phenomenon are still mixed (Rohrmann et al., 2016). ...
... This gender effect in the impostor phenomenon has been observed in other research using undergraduate samples with a similar mean of 21 years (Badawy et al., 2018;Cokley et al., 2018;Patzak et al., 2017). Although it is unclear why women experience higher impostor feelings than men, these results could be linked to feelings of being a minority in STEM (Chakraverty, 2019;Tao & Gloria, 2019). ...
Transformational leaders are role models, inspire their teams to be innovative, and pay attention to their followers' needs to reach goals and personal growth. However, the development of transformational leadership could be inhibited by impostor phenomenon. The impostor phenomenon was first observed in gifted women who felt like frauds, although they were outstanding achievers. This study examined the relationship between impostor phenomenon and transformational leadership in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students. Five hundred forty-eight students (419 undergraduates and 129 graduates; 29% female) participated in an online survey in Spain. We used structural equation modeling to test a regression model associating the impostor phenomenon with different leadership styles. The findings showed that impostor phenomenon relates negatively to the transformational style and positively to the transactional and passive leadership styles. The role of gender was also highlighted but showed no substantial effects. Although first-year female students experienced significantly greater impostor feelings than their male counterparts, the impact of the impostor phenomenon on leadership styles was not dependent on gender. Based on the results, we discuss that impostor phenomenon can be one obstacle in the leadership journey, as it is shown to be associated with less effective leadership styles.
... Previous research has reflected the relationship between the IP and job performance. Badawy et al. (2018) examined the association between the IP, gender, and performance under varying conditions: feedback (N 1 = 268) and accountability (N 2 = 250). Findings showed that men experiencing the IP responded more negatively under high accountability and negative feedback, indicating a complicated relationship between the IP and gender, and work outcomes. ...
The Impostor Phenomenon (IP) is a widespread psychological phenomenon impacting the personal and professional experiences of individuals. This study aims to examine the impact of the IP on employee well-being, performance, and job satisfaction within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Lebanon. Moreover, this study explores if these effects vary depending on individuals’ personality types, such as introverted or extroverted, and if perceived organizational support (POS) plays a moderating role in these relationships. The research employed a mono-method quantitative approach to collect data from a sample of 155 faculty and staff employees using an online structured survey. Data were statistically analyzed using SPSS software. The findings obtained indicate that higher impostorism levels were linked to lower employee well-being, job satisfaction, and self-assessed job performance. Introverts showed a negative association between impostorism and well-being, while extroverts had significant negative associations with both job satisfaction and performance. POS only moderately influenced the association between impostorism and job satisfaction. The significance of the IP’s impacts on employee outcomes among different personality types is emphasized in this study. Furthermore, the moderating role played by POS highlighted the importance of organizational efforts in addressing employees’ experiences. This study provided insights to Human Resources (HR) professionals in Lebanon’s Higher Education Institutions to develop targeted interventions addressing IP experiences and personality types and promoting mental wellness and better job satisfaction and performance, and thus better organizational outcomes.
... First, in more than 45 years of research since the late 1970s (Clance & Imes, 1978), racial and ethnic minority experiences have received little attention. Minorities often form a small sub-sample of the larger group (e.g., Badawy et al., 2018 . These studies cover more generic experiences of the impostor phenomenon not necessarily specific to a minority group. ...
... Some research links this interaction more definitively to women (McGregor, Gee, and Posey 2008). However, IP applies to men and women (Gravois 2007) and singularly to men when faced with performance conditions such as accountability and feedback (Badawy et al. 2018). Amongst research on Black students, evidence points to a higher susceptibility of IP for Black female students (Cokley et al. 2015). ...
Less is known about the impostor phenomenon in undergraduate students and, more so, racially minoritised students in the UK. Impostorism has a constraining effect on constructing an authentic identity, leading to a feeling of phoniness. When impostorism intersects with a gendered and racially minoritised identity, individuals may face specific challenges, such as managing compound identity labels or struggling to achieve in their academic environment. This paper reports experiences of the phenomenon in Black female undergraduate students. Semi-structured focus group interviews with 10 students were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Four themes were generated: contextual experiences of impostorism, finding sense of belonging, struggling to maintain and value an authentic self, and taming my impostor. The findings point to university environments as both barriers and enablers for taming the effect of the impostor phenomenon on academic and cultural identities and provide novel insights into an underrepresented student population.
... Contrary to early beliefs that IS was limited to specific groups (e.g., women), more recent research indicates that it is pervasive across genders, diverse cultures, and various professional fields [8][9]. Interestingly, up to 70% of people, including high-achievers, report experiencing elements of impostorism during their careers [10]. ...
Background
Impostor syndrome (IS) is characterized by an ongoing disbelief in the authenticity of one's accomplishments, attributing success to luck rather than to one's own ability or hard work. The syndrome has detrimental consequences in both personal and career aspects and is closely linked to emotional exhaustion, stress, and depressive symptoms. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of IS among otolaryngologists practicing in Saudi Arabia.
Methods
We performed a cross-sectional survey from August to October 2022 that targeted both practicing otolaryngologists and those still in their training phase in Saudi Arabia. The survey, delivered via email, tapped into the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (SCFHS) database to reach all registered otolaryngologists. The survey tool comprised questions on demographic details and employed the Clance Impostor Phenomenon (IP) Scale to evaluate the presence of IS.
Results
Out of 80 respondents, males (n = 46) were 57.5%, and 18.8% were consultants (n =15). The study found a 27.5% prevalence rate of IS among the surveyed otolaryngologists (n =80), with a mean score of 56.79 ± 12.98. In terms of severity, 62.5% (n = 50) had a moderate level of IS, 25.0% (n = 20) had high IS, and 5.0% (n = 4) had intense IS. It was significantly more common with resident otolaryngologists as compared to consultants (X2 = 7.476, df = 3; p = 0.048), but there was no significant association in terms of gender (X²=3.418, df =1; p = 0.064), type of hospital (X²= 6.351, df = 3; p = 0.096), or fellowship subspecialty (X²= 2.291, df = 4; p = 0.681).
Conclusions
The study detected that 36.9% of otolaryngologists (n = 17) experienced IS, with trainees being more susceptible than consultants and fellows. Further investigations to explore the scope and underlying reasons are recommended.
... A study of 209 individuals found that women report higher impostor feelings than men in many studies, possibly due to lower self-esteem and higher neuroticism [12]. A study found that male impostors react more negatively to performance cues, such as negative feedback and perceived accountability, than female impostors [13]. ...
Background and aim: The impostor phenomenon (IP) was defined in 1978 as an "internal feeling of intellectual phoniness felt by people with outstanding academic and professional achievements." This study aims to estimate the prevalence and predictors of IP among medical students.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2022 to May 2023. A total of 200 medical students from years one to five participated in the survey; the response rate was 82.5% (165). A stratified random sampling technique was used to select groups of male and female Jouf University medical students from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th batches of the 2022 to 2023 academic year. An e-mail with a self-administered questionnaire comprising the Clance IP scale and a consent form was sent to all participants. The identities of the students were kept anonymous to eliminate response bias. Participation was voluntary. Data were presented in terms of numbers and percentages; a chi-square test was used to compare categorical variables; and multivariable analysis was used to determine predictors of IP using SPSS Statistics version 20 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA).
Results: A total of 165 students responded to the questionnaire, with a response rate of 82.531%; 47.30% were males, and 86 (52.10%) were females. The findings indicate that 12 (7.3%), 83 (50.30%), 59 (35.80%), and 11 (6.70%) medical students, respectively, suffered from few, moderate, frequent, and intense imposter features. Results also showed that 13 (56.50%) first-year students suffered from moderate IP experiences, and 10 (43.50%) had frequent IP experiences. It was observed that for students in the first year, the academic performance represented by a student's grade point average (GPA), monthly family income, father's educational level, mother's educational level, and marital status are predictors of impostor experience.
Conclusion: The study's findings show that impostor syndrome is a common problem among medical students and that being in the first year of medical school can increase the incidence of suffering from it. The problem-based learning system in medical school can contribute to impostor syndrome among medical students. Both low-achieving and high-achieving students suffer from impostorism.
... A constructive mentoring relationship may allow individuals to form competence expectations based on guidance from a trusted advisor rather than broader societal gender norms. 41 Contrary to our expectations, age, year of study, and clinical work experience were not associated with IS. This suggests that IS can occur at any stage of study and independently of students' practical experience. ...
Phenomenon: Impostor syndrome (IS) is manifested in the fear of failing and being exposed as incompetent, despite exceptional professional performance. IS has been recognized in many professions, including medicine. Understanding IS prevalence and risk factors is critical to ensure the well-being of medical students and, by extension, future physicians. Approach: It was expected that IS is highly prevalent in medical students, higher in women and associated with year of study and prior clinical experience. The Clance Impostors Phenomenon Scale (CIPS) was used to collect the responses from of medical students in May 2023. Questionnaires were distributed online to both public medical faculties in Slovenia. Findings: 207 medical students (157 women, 50 men; mean age: 23.2 ± 2.6 years) completed the questionnaire (response rate = 13.1%). Women exhibited higher CIPS scores (66.0 ± 13.9) compared to men (58.8 ± 15.1) (p = 0.005). Neither age (r = 0.05; p = 0.464) nor year of study (r = 0.03; p = 0.653) was correlated with CIPS score. There were also no differences in CIPS score between students with (63.4 ± 15.2) and without (64.7 ± 13.9) prior clinical work experience (p = 0.531). Insights: The results of the present study suggest that IS can occur at any stage of medical education, with a slightly higher prevalence in women. This study contributes to the understanding of IS among medical students and calls for addressing environmental factors and taking supportive measures to mitigate the impact of IS and promote medical students’ well-being and success.
... In the last six years, eight studies focused on IP; all of these studies examined professionals. Five studies examined IP quantitatively [3,5,7,13,16]. Respondents in these studies demonstrated some degree of IP. ...
Intuitively, nurse educators know that graduate students in both master’s and doctoral programs question their ability to succeed. The impostor phenomenon (IP) is an internalized sense of inadequacy and fear of being seen as a fraud in the presence of external indicators of authentic achievement, and experienced by high achieving, successful individuals. Fifty-three percent (49/93) of graduate students completed the CIPS survey, and 11 master’s (regular streams & nurse practitioner) and two doctoral students participated in focus group interviews. The quantitative results showed that 88 % of participants experienced moderate to intense impostor phenomenon. Two themes emerged in the qualitative analysis: (i) experiencing the imposter phenomenon and (ii) managing feeling like an impostor. Descriptions of IP were similar across the three groups of participants. This research provides a foundational understanding of how IP is experienced by graduate nursing students.
... Originally, IP was thought to be unique to women [7,9]. However, subsequent research on the topic indicates that men also experience IP to a similar extent as women [10]. ...
Introduction
Impostor phenomenon (IP), grit, and other factors impact job satisfaction for faculty, particularly female faculty.
Methods
The Impostor Phenomenon Research Collaborative (IPRC) evaluated IP, grit, and job satisfaction in pharmacy faculty. A cross-sectional study was conducted with a convenience sample of faculty using a survey, which included demographic questions and validated instruments: Clance Impostor Phenomenon (CIPS), Short GRIT Scale, and Overall Job Satisfaction Questionnaire. Differences between groups, relationships, and prediction were evaluated using independent t-tests, ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and regression analyses.
Results
A total of 436 participants completed the survey; 380 self-identified as pharmacy faculty. Two hundred and one (54%) reported intense or frequent feelings of IP. The mean CIPS score was above 60, indicating a risk of negative outcomes related to IP. There were no differences in the prevalence of IP or job satisfaction levels when female and male faculty were compared. Female faculty had higher GRIT-S scores. Faculty reporting more IP had lower grit and lower job satisfaction. Job satisfaction in faculty was predicted by IP and grit; however, grit did not provide a unique prediction when combined with IP for male faculty.
Conclusion
IP was not more prevalent in female faculty. Female faculty were grittier than male faculty. Higher grit was associated with less IP and higher job satisfaction. IP and grit predicted job satisfaction for female and male pharmacy faculty. Our findings suggest that improving grit may help mitigate IP and impact job satisfaction. Further research on evidence-based IP interventions is needed.
... Clance and Imes observed that despite their successes (e.g., graduating with a Ph.D., being respected professionals in their field, receiving praises and awards recognizing their excellence), the women in their study believed they were unworthy of these successes and only succeeded through luck, mistakes, or by fooling others. Even though imposterism was first observed in women, further research has revealed that individuals who experience IP are found across demographic groups (e.g., genders, cultures, occupations) (e.g., Badawy et al, 2018). Harvey and Katz (1985) noted that this phenomenon could affect any individual who is faced with an achievement task and is not limited to highly successful people. ...
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.
... According to the self-regulation theory, humans regulate their behaviors through "the ongoing exercise of self-influence" (Bandura, 1991, p. 248). More specifically, females have been shown to increase their effort to improve the situation when they are exposed to harmful external stimuli (Badawy, Gazdag, Bentley, & Brouer, 2018), which explains why female entrepreneurs in constrained environments can function effectively even when external incentives are weak or unfavorable (Ajzen, 1991;Bandura, 1978;Carver & Scheier, 2001). Accordingly, individuals observe their actions and develop judgments based on self-assigned references. ...
... Limited research has examined long-term outcomes associated with impostor phenomenon. Furthermore, researchers have investigated a wide range of factors relating to the emergence of impostor phenomenon, including socioeconomic and family (Bussotti, 1990;Clance, 1985;King & Cooley, 1995;Sonnak & Towell, 2001), gender (Badawy et al., 2018;Cusack et al., 2013;Patzak et al., 2017), ethnicity (Ahlfeld, 2009;Ewing et al., 1996;Lige et al., 2017;Peteet et al., 2015), and personality (Bernard et al., 2002;Chae et al., 1995;Clance, 1985;Ferrari & Thompson, 2006;Ross et al., 2001;Thompson et al., 1998;Thompson et al., 2000). Existing research surrounding key features of impostor phenomenon has been primarily observational in nature and based on characteristics outlined by Clance (1985). ...
Despite growing attention surrounding impostor phenomenon (also known as “imposter syndrome”), recent reviews have suggested that current measures may be inadequate in capturing the complex and multifaceted nature of this construct. The objective of the current studies was to clarify the theoretical conceptualization of impostor phenomenon based on experiences in an achievement-oriented setting. We conducted a review of the literature and developed an item pool for a novel impostor phenomenon assessment (IPA) (Study 1). Exploratory factor analyses (Study 1) and confirmatory factor analyses (Study 2) assessed this initial item pool to determine the factor structure and initial psychometric properties of the preliminary IPA (Studies 2 and 3). Our findings offer preliminary evidence for the reliability and validity of the IPA as a novel measure of impostor phenomenon.
... In literature, there are IP researches that focus on overcoming it via internalizing one's accomplishments, has been documented in both graduate and undergraduate student populations in the field of higher education (Gardner & Holley, 2011;Hoang, 2013;Hutchins, 2015;Parkman, 2016;Zambrana et al., 2015). Specifically, researchers have identified a positive correlation between IP and perfectionism, perfectionistic cognitions and perfectionistic self-presentation (Cokley et al., 2018;Cowie et al., 2018;Sakulku & Alexander, 2011), depressive mood and anxiety (Wang et al., 2019), state anxiety (Badawy et al., 2018), stress (Parkman, 2016), depression (McGregor et al., 2008, and selfhandicapping (McElwee & Yurak, 2007). Conversely, a negative correlation is encountered between IP and self-esteem (Cokley et al., 2018;Ghorbanshirodi, 2012;McElwee & Yurak, 2007;Yaffe, 2020a), entitlement (Ross & Krukowski, 2003), conscientiousness, and extraversion (Bernard et al., 2002), emotional intelligence (Ghorbanshirodi, 2012), lighthearted playfulness (Brauer & Proyer, 2017), a sense of purpose in life, and autonomy (September et al., 2001). ...
Keywords Abstract Impostor phenomenon Factor analysis Scale adaptation Validity Reliability Impostor phenomenon (IP) is the intense feeling of high achieving individuals who cannot internalize their success and attribute it to interpersonal skills, luck, timing, and contacts. The Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale (CIPS) assesses the fear of failing and being evaluated negatively, not being able to repeat success, fear of the inability to satisfy the expectations of others, and being less capable of others. This study aims to adapt the CIPS into Turkish. Four hundred seven university students enrolled in the study whose average age is 21.12± 1.72 years. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted. The results of the CFA indicated that the first-order one-factor model was a good fit for the data. Criterion validity analysis results showed a strong negative correlation between CIPS and self-esteem and a strong positive correlation between CIPS and trait anxiety. Test-retest reliability was also strong. The Turkish version of the CIPS has good psychometric properties. The scale can be used to assess the IP levels of young adults.
... Given the association between IP and negative performance evaluation, previous studies have successfully employed problem solving tasks to investigate the phenomenon (Badawy et al., 2018;Brauer & Proyer, 2022;Gadsby & Hohwy, 2021;Thompson et al., 2000). In this study, we follow this trend. ...
The imposter phenomenon (IP) involves a bias towards negative performance evaluation. While dispositional theories predict that such biases are inflexible, situational theories suggest that they may respond to accuracy incentives. In this study, we tested whether performance evaluation bias in IP is responsive to financially incentivising accuracy. Participants (n = 225) high and low in IP solved a set of reasoning problems that they were informed were designed to test their intelligence. After the task, participants estimated their performance, in either an incentivised or unincentivized condition. The results replicated previous findings, as participants high in IP evaluated their performance more negatively. However, when incentivised to do so, high IP participants became more positive in their self-assessments. Amongst low IP participants, no effect of incentive was revealed. These findings emphasise the importance of situational factors in understanding and intervening on the biases associated with IP.
... According to the self-regulation theory, humans regulate their behaviors through "the ongoing exercise of self-influence" (Bandura, 1991, p. 248). More specifically, females have been shown to increase their effort to improve the situation when they are exposed to harmful external stimuli (Badawy, Gazdag, Bentley, & Brouer, 2018), which explains why female entrepreneurs in constrained environments can function effectively even when external incentives are weak or unfavorable (Ajzen, 1991;Bandura, 1978;Carver & Scheier, 2001). Accordingly, individuals observe their actions and develop judgments based on self-assigned references. ...
(The article is Open Access and is freely available on Elsevier at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2022.07.003)The challenges of female entrepreneurship are magnified in constrained contexts where they lack the same rights and resources as men. Although past research suggests that institutional support may help contribute to female entrepreneurs’ success, it is still unclear how this support affects post-founding entrepreneurial processes and outcomes in constrained contexts. Using a unique sample of Iranian female entrepreneurs, our moderated mediation analysis shows that institutional support moderates the effect of entrepreneurial actions on new venture performance through entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Thus, even though female entrepreneurs face significant challenges in constrained contexts, institutional support can enable them to translate their entrepreneurial action into higher self-confidence and better venture outcomes. Post-hoc comparisons with an American sample of female entrepreneurs suggest that institutional support varies between constrained and less constrained contexts. In sum, these results indicate that institutional support helps female entrepreneurs succeed after the venture founding stage by strengthening the entrepreneurial action – self-efficacy relationship. We discuss theoretical contributions and elaborate on practical implications for a broader investigation of minority entrepreneurship in constrained environments.
... Studies on IP in minority groups, for instance, suggest that being the first in their families to pursue advanced education may lead to impostor feelings (Peteet et al., 2015). In addition, Badawy et al. (2018) showed that male and female imposters differ with respect to situational factors leading to impaired performance and anxiety. In their study, only male imposters were significantly affected by negative feedback and conditions with high accountability, probably affecting their competence-based self-views and their self-esteem. ...
The impostor phenomenon (IP) refers to the tendency to perceive oneself as intellectually incompetent and to attribute one’s own success to effort-related or external factors, such as fortunate circumstances. The present study (N=209) aimed to contribute to open questions regarding gender differences in the IP and the nomological network of the IP. The results show that the consistently found key correlates of the IP, that is, lower self-esteem and higher neuroticism, could also play a role in explaining why women report higher impostor feelings than men in many studies. Moreover, the results suggest that IP is characterized by the more maladaptive, socially prescribed perfectionism, which is related to the belief that others expect perfection from oneself, whereas self-oriented perfectionism, which is characterized by a critical view on oneself, plays a smaller role in differences in the IP. Finally, a strong association with the sandbagging construct challenges the conceptualization of the IP as a genuine doubt about one’s own competence, because similarly to IP, sandbaggers present themselves negatively to others, but do so for very strategic reasons in order to create a low expectation base in other individuals. Regression analysis was used to assess the incremental value of the personality factors in explaining variance in the IP. It was found that sandbagging and IP are highly related but not interchangeable.
... Em razão do anteriormente comentado, torna-se evidente que a Síndrome do Impostor leva a cognições e comportamentos disfuncionais que, por sua vez, estão relacionados com bem-estar psicológico e desempenho reduzidos (Badawy, Gazdag, Bentley, & Brouer, 2018;Neureiter & Traut-Mattausch, 2016;Schubert & Bowker, 2017;Villwock, Sobin, Koester, & Harris, 2016). Para que os efeitos dessa síndrome possam ser reconhecidos e que fatores de proteção ou tratamento possam ser explorados, é essencial contar com um instrumento com propriedades psicométricas aceitáveis. ...
Resumo A Síndrome do Importor (SI) reflete dúvidas sobre conquistas e capacidades pessoais na ausência de evidências externas que reforcem tal percepção. Este estudo objetivou adaptar ao contexto brasileiro a Escala Clance do Fenômeno do Impostor (ECFI), reunindo evidências de sua validade fatorial e consistência interna. Dois estudos foram realizados. No Estudo 1, participaram 201 estudantes universitários (M idade = 22,5, DP = 5,04; 71,6% mulheres) e, no Estudo 2, participaram 252 estudantes de pós-graduações (M idade = 30,4 DP = 6,18; 75% mulheres). Todos os participantes responderam a ECFI e perguntas demográficas. Análises fatoriais exploratórias (AFEs) foram realizadas em ambos os estudos, indicando uma estrutura unifatorial, que explicou entre 46,3% (Estudo 1) e 57% (Estudo 2) da variância total, apresentando consistência interna (alfa de Cronbach) acima de 0,90. Concluiu-se que a ECFI é uma medida psicometricamente adequada, que poderá ser usada em estudos futuros para compreender a dimensão geral da síndrome do impostor e seus correlatos.
Az imposztor jelenség a kifejezetten magasan teljesítő egyénekben megjelenő folyamatos belső feszültséget jelenti, melynek oka nem más, mint a kompetenciaélmény, illetve az elért sikerek internalizálásának hiánya. Az érintett egyének annak ellenére, hogy számos objektív bizonyítékot kapnak kiváló képességeikre vonatkozóan, mégis a potenciális kudarctól, a „lelepleződéstől” való félelemben élnek. Elért sikereiket külső kontrollos beállítódással a saját érdemük helyett a szerencsének vagy akár a túlzott felkészülésnek tulajdonítják. Jelen tanulmány kifejezetten az iskolai tehetséggondozásban részt vevők érintettségére kívánja felhívni a figyelmet. Az imposztorizmus ugyanis a tehetséges diákoknál megjelenő alulteljesítés egyik vezető individuális indokának minősül. Hosszú távon számos mentálhigiénét, testi-lelki jóllétet veszélyeztető hatással is bír – ugyanakkor e jelenség iskolai közegben való előfordulása hazánkban kevéssé ismert. Mindemellett az imposztorizmus következményei nem csak a jelenben hatnak, de kihatnak a jövővel kapcsolatos aspirációkra is. Az egyénben megjelenő imposztor gondolatok ugyanis egy olyan kialakult belső képet adhatnak, mely korlátozni képes az érintett tehetséges fiatal pályaválasztási elképzeléseit és szakmai potenciáljának kiteljesedését is. A tanulmány szándéka az imposztor jelenség általános karakterisztikumainak bemutatásán túl az iskolai közegben megjelenő sajátságos jellemzők leírása, specifikációja. A vonások és viselkedéses jellemzők ismertetésével lehetőség nyílhat az érintett diákok felismerésére. Emellett a bemutatott intervenciós lehetőségek módot adhatnak az említett diákok támogatására, melynek célja a tehetséges diákok teljesítményszintjének emelése, illetve a bennük lévő belső feszültség enyhítése.
Girlboss is an archetype made popular in the 2010s that defined women’s success in terms of their individual determination and hard work. In their critique “The Death of the Girlboss: Critical Feminist Epistemology and Implications for HRD,” the authors problematize the girlboss archetype’s noting it’s individualistic nature and how it fails to acknowledge and account for the systemic barriers that all women continue to face at work. This reaction paper shares an alternative perspective on the girlboss archetype by expanding the definition of gender and women, discussing the need for collective acknowledgment of women’s successes, a proposing an evolution for girlboss.
Purpose
The purpose of this empirical investigation was to explore the interrelationship between psychological capital (PsyCaP) and impostor phenomenon (IP) experienced by entrepreneurs.
Design/methodology/approach
The researchers performed exploratory data analysis, using a correlation matrix that included the composite score of all PsyCap dimensions (psychological capital questionnaire [PCQ-24]) and the factor scores of hope, self-efficacy, resilience and optimism. The data analysis was conducted in relation to participants’ IP scores.
Findings
The study results demonstrated that a negative relationship was present between entrepreneurs’ Clance impostor phenomenon scale (CIPS) factor scores (consisting of hope, self-efficacy, resilience and optimism) and PsyCap dimensions (PCQ-24) composite subscales. This indicated that higher levels of PsyCaP were associated with lower levels of IP experience by entrepreneurs.
Research limitations/implications
Theoretically, it must be noted that, based upon these study results, both “impostor phenomenon” and entrepreneurial identity formation occurred among entrepreneurs. It was known to be associated with external environmental, situational and societal factors. The researchers established the relationship between entrepreneurs’ “impostor phenomenon” and “psychological capital (PsyCap)”.
Practical implications
Entrepreneurs and executives associated with business accelerators and incubators should comprehend the link between IP and PsyCap in entrepreneurs. This would enhance the well-being of entrepreneurs in their challenging context. Entrepreneurs and executives associated with business accelerators and incubators might explore the effectiveness of PsyCap-based interventions, along with IP-related considerations.
Originality/value
This was one of the first empirical studies investigating and establishing the relationship between entrepreneurs’ “impostor phenomenon” and “psychological capital (PsyCap)”.
The imposter phenomenon (IP) is associated with a bias towards negative evaluation of one’s own performances. This study employs an online problem-solving task to investigate this bias. Participants (graduate students from the UK, US, and Europe; n = 163) solved reasoning problems and subsequently evaluated their performance. Participants high in IP evaluated their performances more negatively than participants low in IP. This pattern was observed both during the task and after completion. It was also observed in objective assessments (estimates of accuracy) and comparative assessments (estimates of rank amongst participants). Performance evaluation bias was not associated with a bias in the selection of feedback about performance nor was it mediated by depression or self-esteem.
Objective:
To determine the factors associated with impostor syndrome in medical students from six regions of Peru.
Material and methods:
A multicentre, cross-sectional study was conduced on students from first to the sixth year in six Peruvian regions. Sociodemographic, academic, and psychological characteristics were included through the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Clance Imposter Phenomenon Scale. Generalised linear models were performed using crude and adjusted estimated prevalence ratios.
Results:
Of 2,231 medical students, 54.3% were female and 30.6% had the impostor phenomenon. An association was found between the PI and those who suffered from depression (aPR=1.51; 95%CI, 1.27-1.79), anxiety (aPR=2.25; 95%CI, 1.75-2.90), stress (aPR=1.37; 95%CI, 1.19-1.57), and being female (aPR=1.12; 95%CI, 1.01-1.26).
Conclusions:
Three out of 10 medical students suffer from PI; having some level of depression, anxiety, stress, being a woman, and/or attending the fourth academic year were predisposing factors for their development.
Imposter syndrome refers to those who believe that they are intellectual frauds, tricking those around them into believing that they are competent. Although present in many industries, the field of medicine has recently recognized how pervasive it is amongst trainees and clinicians. Surgical residents are not immune from the effects of imposter syndrome.KeywordsImposter syndromeMental healthSuccessInternal motivationAnxiety
Quality patient care and advancements in medical education, investigation, and innovation require effective teamwork. High-functioning teams navigate stressful environments, learning openly from failures and leveraging successes to fuel future initiatives. The authors review foundational concepts for implementing and sustaining successful teams, including emotional intelligence, trust, inclusivity, clear communication, and accountability. Focus is given to real-world examples and actionable, practical solutions.
Um die eigenen Stärken und Schwächen zu erkennen, muss jeder ein paar Stolpersteine vermeiden: von der Selbstwahrnehmung bis hin zur Interaktion mit anderen. Es geht ebenso um Narzissmus und übermäßiges Selbstvertrauen wie um eine Unterschätzung der eigenen Fähigkeiten und der eigenen Grenzen. Hält man sich für zu eindeutig oder nimmt sich zu wichtig? Werkzeuge werden an die Hand gegeben, um die eigenen Stärken und Schwächen Schritt für Schritt für den derzeitigen wie für einen zukünftigen Job zu analysieren.
Many people complain that phoniness causes, or contributes to causing, life to be insufficiently meaningful. In this chapter, the author explores the relation between phoniness and meaning in life, arguing that the former sometimes enhances rather than undermines the latter. After typifying phoniness and distinguishing it from neighbouring notions (e.g. lying, deceiving, being hypocritical), the author discusses the ways in which phoniness undermines life’s meaning. He then discusses common reactions to phoniness and claims that two of them are preferable to others. He argues that the prevalence and degree of phoniness can be easily exaggerated, and that phoniness sometimes protects or even increases, rather than undermines, meaning in life. Hence, some of the efforts to combat phoniness are unhelpful. Occasionally, there is also reason to doubt their motivation. However, since in many cases phoniness does diminish life’s meaning, there is need for a nuanced understanding of the relation between the two.
Impostor phenomenon (IP) is an experience of psychological discomfort where some high-achieving people disbelieve their success. Those experiencing IP feel undeserving and fear being discovered as a fraud in one’s area of expertise. This study examined how early career researchers or ECRs of Hispanic/Latino origin in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields described ethnicity-based experiences of IP. The research question examined how Hispanic/Latino ECRs (current PhD students and postdoctoral trainees) in STEM describe ethnicity-based experiences of IP during doctoral or postdoctoral training. Twenty-nine US-based ECRs were sequentially surveyed and interviewed. Participants were recruited purposefully and by snowball sampling through professional networks and social media. Descriptive statistics from surveys indicated that participants experienced moderate to intense IP at the time of the study with a mean score of 73.65/100 indicating high IP. Interviews with the same participants were coded and thematically displayed using constant comparison. The following themes were constructed: 1) family background and first-generation status, 2) disparity in observable traits and ethnic identity, 3) communicating in English, 4) enhance diversity, and, 5) underrepresentation and isolation. IP in connection with racial, ethnic, and other identities is poorly understood; culturally-informed understanding requires more research.
Til trods for stigende opmærksomhed på impostor-fænomenet (herefter IF) de seneste år, er mængden af kvalitativ forskning inden for området særdeles sparsom. Formålet med denne artikel er derfor at udføre en kvalitativ undersøgelse for at få indsigt i følelser, tanker og adfærd associeret med oplevelsen af IF blandt unge voksne. Livsperioden, som unge voksne befinder sig i, anskues inden for en teoretisk rammeforståelse om fremspirende voksenliv (eng. emerging adulthood). Analysen udføres på baggrund af interviewdata fra ni unge voksne. Fundene indikerer, at unge voksne oplever og håndterer IF på særdeles komplekse måder, som ofte kompliceres af udviklingsmæssige udfordringer i deres uddannelses- og arbejdsmæssige kontekster. Baseret på analysens resultater og den efterfølgende diskussion, konkluderes det, at selvom eksisterende teori og fund om IF omfatter fællestræk ved oplevelsen af IF, kan dette ikke fyldestgørende indfange de unge voksnes nuancerede, personlige oplevelser. Dette studie illustrer således, hvordan den kvalitative tilgang kan berige forståelsen af IF.
The imposter phenomenon (IP) involves a bias towards negative performance evaluation. While dispositional theories predict that such biases are inflexible, situational theories suggest that they may respond to accuracy incentives. In this study, we tested whether performance evaluation bias in IP is responsive to financially incentivising accuracy. Participants (n = 225) high and low in IP solved a set of reasoning problems that they were informed were designed to test their intelligence. After the task, participants estimated their performance, in either an incentivised or unincentivized condition. The results replicated previous findings, as participants high in IP evaluated their performance more negatively. However, when incentivised to do so, high IP participants became more positive in their self-assessments. Amongst low IP participants, no effect of incentive was revealed. These findings emphasise the importance of situational factors in understanding and intervening on the biases associated with IP.
The impostor phenomenon is a psychological construct referring to a range of negative emotions associated with a person's perception of their own "fraudulent competence" in a field or of their lack of skills necessary to be successful in that field. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many practicing evaluators have experienced impostor feelings, but lack a framework in which to understand their experiences and the forums in which to discuss them. This paper summarizes the literature on the impostor phenomenon, applies it to the field of evaluation, and describes the results of an empirical, quantitatively focused study which included open-ended qualitative questions exploring impostorism in 323 practicing evaluators. The results suggest that impostor phenomenon in evaluators consists of three constructs: Discount, Luck, and Fake. Qualitative data analysis suggests differential coping strategies for men and women. Thematic analysis guided the development of a set of proposed solutions to help lessen the phenomenon's detrimental effects for evaluators.
Emerging leaders may encounter difficulty in constructing, developing, and integrating a positive leader identity due to Imposter Phenomenon (IP), which induces feelings of self-doubt that can make them feel incompetent and that their success is unearned. In this study, we explored how coaching can be used as a developmental intervention to help emerging leaders explore the ongoing negotiation of self-concept and help assuage imposter cognitions. Our mixed-method multiple case study sought to answer the overarching research question: If, and in what ways did participation in a coaching intervention influence participant’s leader identity and imposter cognitions? The purpose of this study was to determine how leadership coaching might influence and shape leadership identity, and to discover the ways IP can be mitigated as part of the coaching developmental relationship. We were additionally interested in finding effective strategies coaches employ to develop a positive leadership identity. We captured the experiences of five (5) participants in a leadership development program where they received a coaching intervention. Data collection included pre and post assessments of IP experiences and a post-intervention interview. Findings across the cases illustrate that coaching, as a developmental approach is effective at helping leaders reframe negative reactions to imposter-like situations as well as assist imposter-prone leaders to become more open to interpreting performance feedback and enhance leader identity. The findings offer implications for emerging leaders in making progress on imposter cognitions, and for coaches to recognize and add strategies to address self-concept and cognitive schema reframing.
One of the most commonly accepted models of relationships among three variables in applied industrial and organizational psychology is the simple moderator effect. However, many authors have expressed concern over the general lack of empirical support for interaction effects reported in the literature. We demonstrate in the current sample that use of a continuous, dependent-response scale instead of a discrete, Likert-type scale, causes moderated regression analysis effect sizes to increase an average of 93%. We suggest that use of relatively coarse Likert scales to measure fine dependent responses causes information loss that, although varying widely across subjects, greatly reduces the probability of detecting true interaction effects. Specific recommendations for alternate research strategies are made.
Following up on earlier investigations, the present paper analyzes construct validity of the impostor phenomenon. It examines the question whether the impostor phenomenon is a homogeneous construct or whether different types of persons with impostor self-concept can be distinguished on the basis of related characteristics. The study was conducted with professionals in leadership positions exhibiting a pronounced impostor self-concept (n = 183). Cluster-analytic procedures indicated the existence of two different types: one group which, in line with the literature (e.g., Clance, 1985), possessed traits classified as fairly unfavorable (“true impostors”) and another group which can be described as largely unencumbered (“strategic impostors”). The present study suggests two types of impostorism: “True” impostors characterized by the negative self-views associated with the construct definition, and more “strategic” impostors who seem to be less encumbered by self-doubt. It is assumed that “strategic impostors” are characterized by a form of deliberate self-presentation. Therefore, the impostor self-concept cannot principally be viewed as a dysfunctional personality style. This distinction should be more carefully considered in further research and in therapeutic interventions.
The impostor phenomenon (IP) refers to high-achievers who underestimate their abilities and thus fear being unmasked as impostors. IP sufferers attribute their success to factors other than their abilities, entailing negative emotions, unfavorable motivations, and reduced well-being. The IP was originally conceptualized as a predominantly female experience, and is thus seen as an important psychological barrier for female academic careers. Empirical findings of gender differences in the IP are equivocal, but sparse research on associations between gender-role orientation and the IP indicates that feminine students suffer more intensely from the IP than masculine students. Femininity and masculinity are also related to self-compassion, a rather young construct that enhances emotional resilience, well-being, and academic achievement. Self-compassion involves being kind to oneself when failing, perceiving one’s inadequacies as part of the human condition, and being mindful about negative aspects of oneself. It reduces fear of failure, denial of competences, and self-doubts which are central components of the IP. However, relations between self-compassion and the IP have not been investigated to date. In this study, we examine self-compassion as a potential resilience factor against the IP, taking gender and gender-role orientation into account. In a cross-sectional online survey, we investigated 459 (315 female) high-achieving first-year undergraduate students. Results include: Female, feminine, and undifferentiated students score higher on measures of the IP and lower on measures of self-compassion than male, masculine, or androgynous students. Higher levels of the IP are associated with lower levels of self-compassion across all students tested. Self-compassion further mediates the relationship between gender-role orientation and the IP. Interventions to enhance self-compassion might thus be an effective way to overcome impostor feelings. Female, feminine, and undifferentiated students might benefit most from facilitation of self-compassion in education.
The impostor phenomenon (IP), or feelings of intellectual incompetence, reflects a maladaptive set of cognitions, which pose a significant psychological risk for African American emerging adults. In light of recent evidence suggesting that personal and sociocultural factors may influence the association between IP and psychological adjustment, this study used 2 waves of data to examine the extent to which gender and racial discrimination moderated the association between IP and indices of mental health among 157 African American college students (69% women; mean age = 18.30) attending a predominantly White institution. Analyses revealed that young African American women reporting higher frequencies of racial discrimination and women reporting lower levels of distress resulting from racial discrimination were most vulnerable to negative mental health outcomes, particularly at higher levels of IP. These findings suggest that IP may interact with gender and racial discrimination experiences to influence mental health outcomes. We discuss how these findings can be utilized to inform treatment of African American emerging adults experiencing IP and the importance of considering how gender and discrimination may intersect to exacerbate feelings of intellectual incompetence.
Emergent attitudes toward brilliance
The distribution of women and men across academic disciplines seems to be affected by perceptions of intellectual brilliance. Bian et al. studied young children to assess when those differential perceptions emerge. At age 5, children seemed not to differentiate between boys and girls in expectations of “really, really smart”—childhood's version of adult brilliance. But by age 6, girls were prepared to lump more boys into the “really, really smart” category and to steer themselves away from games intended for the “really, really smart.”
Science , this issue p. 389
Considering the impostor phenomenon (IP) as an important psychological construct in the context of career development requires a theoretical grounding. Using the career construction model of adaptation as a guiding framework, we investigated how the IP is related to adaptive readiness (represented by core self-evaluations), career adaptability resources, and adapting responses, namely, career planning, career decision-making difficulties, career exploration, and occupational self-efficacy. We used parallel multiple mediation modeling to investigate specific indirect effects through concern, control, curiosity, confidence, and the IP. We conducted an online study with 289 university students. Results indicated a positive effect of core self-evaluations on career planning, career exploration, and occupational self-efficacy and a negative effect on career decision-making difficulties through adaptability resources. The IP emerged as a “maladaptability” resource: That is, it might be a hindrance to adaptive coping and behavior and consequently promote maladaptive coping and behavior by decreasing career planning and occupational self-efficacy and increasing career decision-making difficulties. Supplementary negative effects of the IP on adaptability resources are discussed.
The impostor phenomenon (IP) is increasingly recognized as an important psychological construct for career development, yet empirical research on how it functions in this domain is sparse. We investigated in what way impostor feelings are related to the fear of failure, fear of success, self-esteem, and the career-development aspects career planning, career striving, and the motivation to lead. We conducted two studies with independent samples of university students (N = 212) in a laboratory study and working professionals (N = 110) in an online study. In both samples, impostor feelings were fostered by fear of failure, fear of success, and low self-esteem and they decreased career planning, career striving, and the motivation to lead. A path analysis showed that impostor feelings had the most negative effects on career planning and career striving in students and on the motivation to lead in working professionals. The results suggest that the IP is relevant to career development in different ways at different career stages. Practical implications and interventions to reduce the negative effects of impostor feelings on career development are discussed.
In the Impostor Phenomenon, people experience feelings of inadequacy and fraudulence. Although theory predicts that impostors should report that others view them more positively than they view themselves, recent research has failed to support this hypothesis and suggests instead that impostorism may be used as a self-diminishing self-presentation strategy. In the present work, 253 students completed questionnaires including three measures of self-and reflected appraisals and several measures of affect and self-presentation. Results support previous research indicating that while impostors report feeling inadequate, they do not actually feel fraudulent: They do not believe that others view them more positively than they view themselves. Additionally, multidimensional scaling and correlational analyses investigate whether impostorism operates as a more controlled or automatic self-presentation strategy. Implications for conceptualizing and measuring the experience of impostorism are discussed.
Purpose – The Impostor Phenomenon (IP) refers to the intense feelings of intellectual fraudulence, often experienced by high achieving individuals. The purpose of this study is threefold: (1) examine the trait-relatedness of the IP; (2) investigate the potential impact of impostor tendencies on relevant work attitudes (i.e., job satisfaction and organizational commitment) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB); and (3) explore whether workplace social support can buffer the potential harmful effects of impostor tendencies.
Design/methodology/approach – Belgian employees (N=201) from three different sectors participated in a cross-sectional survey study.
Findings – Hierarchical regressions revealed that Big Five personality traits, core self-evaluations, and maladaptive perfectionism explain large proportions of the variance in impostor tendencies (∆R²=.59). A relative weight analysis indicated self-efficacy as the most important predictor, followed by maladaptive perfectionism and Neuroticism. Further, results showed that employees with stronger impostor tendencies indicate lower levels of job satisfaction and OCB, and higher levels of continuance commitment. However, workplace social support buffered the negative effects of impostor tendencies on job satisfaction and OCB.
Implications – Employees hampered by impostor tendencies could benefit from coaching programs that focus on the enhancement of self-efficacy and the alleviation of maladaptive perfectionistic concerns. Impostor tendencies have an impact on career attitudes and organizational behavior. Extra attention could be devoted to the assessment of this specific trait constellation in selection or development contexts. Interventions designed to increase social support are particularly relevant in this regard.
Originality/value – Despite its relevance for contemporary work settings, the IP has barely been investigated in adult working samples.
This study is based on a review of several papers on multiple regression (with an emphasis on moderated regression) that have recently been published in the Journal of Management and elsewhere. Independent contributions from each of these articles suggest six sets of questions and/or conclusions that might motivate future researchers in this area, and we call for research which integrates the questions into unified studies.
Two studies examined impostor fears, self-handicapping and self-presentational concerns. In Study 1 (113 women, 52 men), impostor fears were significantly related to social desirability (low self-deception over impression management), perfectionistic cognitions, and non-display of imperfection to others. In Study 2, 72 women were exposed either to face-saving failure (failure that was did not indicate low ability, thereby assuaging self-presentational concerns), humiliating failure (where no mitigating excuse for poor performance was available), or success. Following humiliating failure, participants high compared to low in impostor fears claimed more handicaps. However, when provided with a face-saving excuse, these participant groups did not differ in their propensity to claim handicaps. Together, these studies suggest that impostor fears are associated with self-presentational concerns in situations that involve threat to self-worth. However the link is with claimed, not with behavioural self-handicapping.
Previous research indicates that unfavorable feedback, even unfavorable feedback provided for developmental purposes only, is not perceived as useful, results in negative reactions and is not associated with a recipient's willingness to change his or her behavior. This study examined the extent to which contextual variables mitigate these unwanted effects of developmental unfavorable feedback. Results indicate that employees are more motivated to improve their job performance based on unfavorable feedback when the feedback source is perceived to be credible, the feedback is of high quality and the feedback is delivered in a considerate manner.
As discussed in the previous statistical notes, although many statistical methods have been proposed to test normality of data in various ways, there is no current gold standard method. The eyeball test may be useful for medium to large sized (e.g., n > 50) samples, however may not useful for small samples. The formal normality tests including Shapiro-Wilk test and Kolmogorov-Smirnov test may be used from small to medium sized samples (e.g., n < 300), but may be unreliable for large samples. Moreover we may be confused because ‘eyeball test’ and ‘formal normality test’ may show incompatible results for the same data. To resolve the problem, another method of assessing normality using skewness and kurtosis of the distribution may be used, which may be relatively correct in both small samples and large samples. 1) Skewness and kurtosis Skewness is a measure of the asymmetry and kurtosis is a measure of ’peakedness’ of a distribution. Most statistical packages give you values of skewness and kurtosis as well as their standard errors.
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.
This study contributes to explaining psychological barriers in female university careers by examining the relation between the impostor phenomenon and research self-efficacy in the university context. The impostor phenomenon refers to people who are objectively competent but feel the opposite and therefore fear being unmasked. So far, there have been no data from German-speaking countries concerning the impostor phenomenon at universities; thus, the impostor phenomenon was examined in a sample of 631 (389 female) Austrian doctoral students. One-third of the sample reported moderate to strong impostor feelings. Female doctoral students both suffer more from impostor feelings and show lower research self-efficacy than male doctoral students do. Furthermore, the impostor phenomenon and research self-efficacy are associated with faculty membership. The most important finding is that the impostor phenomenon is negatively related to research self-efficacy. Research self-efficacy is an important indicator for successful university careers; hence, the impostor phenomenon was shown to be a psychological barrier for female university careers. Implications for support programs for female doctoral students are discussed.
Explored the impact of accountability (the need to justify one's views to others) on the complexity of people's thinking on controversial social issues. 48 undergraduates reported their thoughts on 3 issues and then responded to a series of attitude scales relevant to each topic. Ss provided this information under 1 of 4 conditions: expecting their attitudes to be anonymous or expecting to justify their attitudes to an individual with liberal, conservative, or unknown views. Consistent with previous work on strategic attitude shifts, Ss reported more liberal attitudes when they expected to justify their views to a conservative. Accountability also increased the integrative complexity and evaluative inconsistency of the thoughts reported on each issue but only when Ss expected to justify their attitudes to an individual with unknown views. Findings suggest that accountability leads to more complex information processing only when people do not have the cognitively lazy option of simply expressing views similar to those of the individual to whom they feel accountable. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Men and women are believed to differ in how influential and easily influenced they are: Men are thought to be more influential, and women more easily influenced. In natural settings, men and women tend to differ in these ways, but these differences stem largely from formal status inequalities by which men are more likely than women to have high-status roles. Status is important because of the legitimate authority vested in high-status roles. Within appropriate limits, people of higher status are believed to have the right to make demands of those of lower status, and people of lower status are expected to comply with these demands. Yet, small, stereotypic sex differences in leadership and social influence generally have been found in laboratory experiments and other small-group settings where men and women have equal formal status. These small sex differences may occur because experience with hierarchical social structures in which men have higher status creates expectancies about male and female behavior, and these expectancies affect social interaction in ways that foster behavior that confirms the expectancies. Sex differences that occur in the laboratory as well as natural settings may stem from social structural factors—namely, from the existing distributions of women and men into social roles. (77 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The literature on feedback to individuals has previously been reviewed with respect to its effect on the behavior of individuals in performance-oriented organizations. Although contemporary views of individual behavior in organizations stress that feedback is necessary for effective role performance, little attention is given to the psychological processes affected by it. This review focuses on the multidimensional nature of feedback as a stimulus and addresses the process by which feedback influences behavior. Emphasis is placed on those aspects of feedback that influence (a) the way it is perceived, (b) its acceptance by the recipient, and (c) the willingness of the recipient to respond to the feedback. (3 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Monte Carlo simulations were conducted to examine the degree to which the statistical power of moderated multiple regression (MMR) to detect the effects of a dichotomous moderator variable was affected by the main and interactive effects of (a) predictor variable range restriction, (b) total sample size, (c) sample sizes for 2 moderator variable-based subgroups, (d) predictor variable intercorrelation, and (e) magnitude of the moderating effect. Results showed that the main and interactive influences of these variables may have profound effects on power. Thus, future attempts to detect moderating effects with MMR should consider the power implications of both the main and interactive effects of the variables assessed in the present study. Otherwise, even moderating effects of substantial magnitude may go undetected. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The term "impostor phenomenon" is used to designate an internal experience of intellectual phoniness that appears to be particularly prevalent and intense among a select sample of high achieving women. Certain early family dynamics and later introjection of societal sex-role stereotyping appear to contribute significantly to the development of the impostor phenomenon. Despite outstanding academic and professional accomplishments, women who experience the impostor phenomenon persist in believing that they are really not bright and have fooled anyone who thinks otherwise. Numerous achievements, which one might expect to provide ample objective evidence of superior intellectual functioning, do not appear to affect the impostor belief. Four factors that contribute to the maintenance of impostor feelings over time are explored. Therapeutic approaches found to be effective in helping women change the impostor self-concept are described. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Applying Higgins' regulatory focus theory, we hypothesized that the effect of positive/negative feedback on motivation and performance is moderated by task type, which is argued to be an antecedent to situational regulatory focus (promotion or prevention). Thus, first we demonstrated that some tasks (e.g., tasks requiring creativity) are perceived as promotion tasks, whereas others (e.g., those requiring vigilance and attention to detail) are perceived as prevention tasks. Second, as expected, our tests in two studies of the moderation hypothesis showed that positive feedback increased self-reported motivation (meta-analysis across samples: N = 315, d = 0.43) and actual performance (N = 55, d = 0.67) among people working on promotion tasks, relative to negative feedback. Positive feedback, however, decreased motivation (N = 318, d = −0.33) and performance (N = 55, d = −0.37) among individuals working on prevention tasks, relative to negative feedback. These findings suggest that (a) performance of different tasks can affect regulatory focus and (b) variability in positive/negative feedback effects can be partially explained by regulatory focus and task type. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The current study examined the relationship between the imposter phenomenon as measured by the Harvey Imposter Phenomenon (HIP) scale and personality pathology as conceptualized by the DSM-III-R. We found that DSM-III-R personality disorder scales accounted for 30% of the variance in the imposter phenomenon (IP) and were best characterized by cluster C Avoidant and Dependent type characteristics. Further, trait and temperament scales of the Schedule of Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality (SNAP) accounted for 40% of the variance in IP. The top three trait and temperament predictors of IP were Detachment (+), Dependency (+), and Entitlement (−). In addition, Mistrust (+), Workaholism (+), and the Low Self-Esteem subscale of Self-Harm also contributed unique variance in predicting IP scores. These results provide additional evidence for the construct validity of IP as a maladaptive personality style which emphasizes a pervasive sense of inferiority, fear, and self-deprecation.
This study investigated the imposter phenomenon (IP) in relation to common achievement dispositions and the Five Factor Model (FFM). A total of 129 college students were administered measures of achievement including the Harvey Imposter Phenomenon, Cooperation, Debilitating Anxiety, Hypercompetitive Attitude, Personal Development Competition, and Self-handicapping scales, in addition to the NEO-PI-R. IP scores were related to all achievement constructs, but were best predicted by Fear of Failure (+) and Self-handicapping (+). Consistent with previous findings [Chae, J. H., Piedmont R., Estadt, B., & Wicks, R. (1995). Personal evaluation of Clance’s impostor phenomenon scale in a Korean sample. Journal of Personality Assessment, 65(3), 468–485.] the IP was related to Neuroticism (+), Extraversion (−), and Conscientiousness (−). However, Neuroticism accounted for the vast majority of variance in the FFM predicting IP scores. In addition, a pattern of correlations was found for the IP and facet scales of the NEO-PI-R that is highly similar to those reported by Chae et al. Taken together, these findings expand our understanding of the IP in achievement and confirm earlier findings for the FFM.
Some contemporary theorists contend that the desire for self-enhancement is prepotent and more powerful than rival motives such as self-verification. If so, then even people with negative self-views will embrace positive evaluations. The authors tested this proposition by conducting a meta-analytic review of the relevant literature. The data provided ample evidence of self-enhancement strivings but little evidence of its prepotency. Instead, the evidence suggested that both motives are influential but control different response classes. In addition, other motives may sometimes come into play. For example, when rejection risk is high, people seem to abandon self-verification strivings, apparently in an effort to gratify their desire for communion. However, when rejection risk is low, as is the case in many secure marital relationships, people prefer self-verifying evaluations. The authors conclude that future researchers should broaden the bandwidth of their explanatory frameworks to include motives other than self-enhancement.
This article presents a theory of how different types of discrepancies between self-state representa- tions are related to different kinds of emotional vulnerabilities. One domain of the self (actual; ideal; ought) and one standpoint on the self (own; significant other) constitute each type of self-state representation. It is proposed that different types of self-discrepancies represent different types of negative psychological situations that are associated with different kinds of discomfort. Discrepan- cies between the actual/own self-state (i.e., the self-concept) and ideal self-stales (i.e., representations of an individual's beliefs about his or her own or a significant other's hopes, wishes, or aspirations for the individual) signify the absence of positive outcomes, which is associated with dejection-related emotions (e.g., disappointment, dissatisfaction, sadness). In contrast, discrepancies between the ac- tual/own self-state and ought self-states (i.e., representations of an individual's beliefs about his or her own or a significant other's beliefs about the individual's duties, responsibilities, or obligations) signify the presence of negative outcomes, which is associated with agitation-related emotions (e.g., fear, threat, restlessness). Differences in both the relative magnitude and the accessibility of individu- als' available types of self-discrepancies are predicted to be related to differences in the kinds of discomfort people are likely to experience. Correlational and experimental evidence supports the predictions of the model. Differences between serf-discrepancy theory and (a) other theories of in- compatible self-beliefs and (b) actual self negativity (e.g., low self-esteem) are discussed.
Currently, the number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) jobs are expanding faster than the U.S. labor market; yet many individuals with STEM degrees choose to work in other fields. The present study uses social cognitive career theory as a framework for researching the impact of several variables on future expectations to continue in STEM. We measured math self-efficacy with the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scales and impostorism from the Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale. New measures of interest and future intentions were created. One hundred twenty-one undergraduates (47.1% women; median age = 21.00) enrolled in STEM majors completed an online survey. We hypothesized that math self-efficacy and interest would significantly predict future expectations and that impostorism would significantly add to this prediction. This theory was analyzed with a hierarchical multiple regression, and the hypothesis was supported by data from men. In the women’s model, only interest emerged as a significant predictor. Implications are discussed.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderated-mediational relationship between the impostor phenomenon (IP) and work-to-family conflict (WFC). Building on conservation of resources (COR) theory, the authors hypothesize that individuals who experience the IP lack the initial resources needed to meet work demands and, thus, experience emotional exhaustion, which leads to WFC. However, the authors hypothesize that additional resources provided by organizations, such as perceived organizational support (POS), may weaken the negative experiences of imposters.
Design/methodology/approach
– The authors tested a moderated-mediation model using data from a time-lagged survey study among 92 Midwest community college employees. Regression was used to examine the mediating effects of emotional exhaustion and the moderating effect of POS on the IP to WFC relationship.
Findings
– Results support the hypothesized model. Emotional exhaustion is a mediating mechanism in the relationship between the IP and WFC. POS is a moderator of this indirect relationship; the indirect relationship between the IP and WFC through emotional exhaustion is weaker when employees perceive high levels of POS.
Practical/implications
– The findings suggest that there are detrimental long-term effects associated with the IP for organizations. Thus, managers should curb feelings of impostorism within their organizations and provide impostors with organizational support in order to reduce their emotional exhaustion and WFC.
Originality/value
– The present study indicates that individual dispositions play an indirect role in WFC. Furthermore, the authors identify organizational outcomes associated with the IP, whereas previous research has rarely emphasized outcomes.
Impostorism denotes individuals who are successful in their jobs but who doubt their abilities relative to the demands of their jobs. This study analyzes to what extent impostorism affects leadership behavior of these individuals. A core component of leadership is task delegation, implying the empowerment of employees to take responsibility for more or less challenging projects. In a vignette study, N = 190 managers assigned both routine and challenging tasks to employees who allegedly possessed varying levels of self-confidence regarding their job-related abilities. Managers holding negative self-views of their own abilities and perceiving themselves as impostors in their jobs, preferred to delegate both challenging and routine tasks to employees whose self-views resembled those of the managers. This study clearly shows that managers' self-beliefs bias their task delegation decisions.
Accountability is a fundamental element of all societies and the organizations that operate within them. This paper focuses on the individual-level accountability concept of felt accountability (also referred to in the literature as simply accountability), which can be described as the perceptions of one's personal accountability. We describe key theories that have formed the theoretical groundwork for the body of felt accountability literature, and discuss the empirical research published since the last major review of the accountability literature in the late 1990s. Empirical research has revealed that accountability has both constructive and deleterious consequences. Moreover, research examining accountability and key outcomes has produced mixed results, suggesting that consideration of moderators and nonlinear relationships are important when examining accountability. Although accountability is an important construct, there are many issues that have yet to be investigated by scholars. We identify limitations and gaps in the current body of the empirical research and conclude the paper with suggestions for scholars striving to make contributions to this line of research. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
In 1978, Clance and Imes developed the term Imposter Phenomenon (IP) to designate an internal experience of intellectual phoniness that seemed to be particularly prevalent among a select sample of high achieving women. They worked with 150 highly successful women from a wide range of professional fields such as law, nursing, medicine, social work, and university teaching, plus students at graduate and undergraduate levels. Clance and Imes had worked with their subjects in clinical settings such as individual psychotherapy or theme-centered inter-actional groups or small discussion-oriented college classes. These subjects had obtained earned degrees, high scores on standardized tests, or professional recognition from colleagues or organizations, yet they did not experience an internal sense of success. They were afraid they were "impostors" who did not belong "here with all these bright, competent people." They were very frightened that others would discover that they were not as competent as they appeared to be, and dreaded such discovery. They attributed their success to hard work, luck, knowing the right people, being in the right place at the right time, or to their interpersonal assets such as charm and the ability to relate well, rather than to ability or competence. For instance, students often said the admissions committee had made an error. One student expressed her feelings by saying, "I walk around thinking I'm the Michigan mistake." A highly respected professional woman explained, "I just got my job as a fluke. They needed someone at mid-year and so very few qualified applicants applied." The reality was that the students who were feeling like impostors were among the highest ranked students and the search committee for the woman professional had selected her out of a pool of many highly qualified candidates. These subjects were ingenious at negating objective external evidence that indicated they were indeed very bright. They had tremendous difficulty in accepting compliments or positive feedback. If they received an excellent quarterly evaluation they might think, "This agency or institution does not have very high standards if they think I'm good." Yet, if they received any negative feedback they belied it and tended to remember it as evidence of their deficits.
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.
Impostors are outwardly successful individuals who experience secret intense feelings of fraudulence in achievement situations. Elements of perfectionism are evident in a tendency on the part of impostors to maintain high standards for personal evaluation while being critical of their inability to realise these standards. This study utilised a 2 (impostor status: high, low)×2 (task type: high vs. low frequency of mistakes) between-subjects factorial design to investigate the connection between impostor fears and perfectionistic concern over mistakes. Sixty undergraduate students completed either a high or low frequency of mistake Stroop Colour-Word task, following which they completed items assessing perceptions of their performance, concern over mistakes, perceptions of control and anxiety, the Positive and Negative Affect Scale and the Russell Causal Dimension Scale. Links with perfectionistic concern over mistakes and anxiety were strongly supported, with impostors reporting less control, greater anxiety, more negative affect and greater concern over mistakes than non-impostors irrespective of experimental condition. The roles of anxiety and perfectionist cognitions in the maintenance of impostor fears are discussed.
Social stress can be understood by incorporating interruption theory as developed in research on stress into a model of identity processes drawn from identity theory. From this perspective, social stress results from interruption of the feedback loop that maintains identity processes. I discuss four mechanisms of interruption of identity processes: broken identity loops, interference between identity systems, over-controlled identity systems, and the invocation of episodic identities. Each of these four mechanisms is associated with conditions known to produce feelings of distress. Finally, I discuss how personal evaluation relates to identity processes and distress, and how distress, can lead to changes in identity.
Due to the increasing importance of moderating (i.e., interaction) effects, the use of moderated multiple regression (MMR) has become pervasive in numerous management specialties such as organizational behavior, human resources management, and strategy, to name a few. Despite its popularity, recent research on the MMR approach to moderator variable detection has identified several factors that reduce statistical power below acceptable levels and, consequently, lead researchers to erroneously dismiss theoretical models that include moderated relationships. The present article (1) briefly describes MMR, (2) reviews factors that affect the statistical power of hypothesis tests conducted using this technique, (3) proposes solutions to low power situations, and (4) discusses areas and problems related to MMR that are in need of further investigation.
This study examined parental rearing styles and objective confidence in relation to impostor phenome-non (feelings of phoniness experienced by individuals who have achieved some level of success, Clance & Imes, 1978) and self-handicapping tendencies (creation of an impediment to performance as an excuse for possible failure, Jones & Berglas, 1978). Participants (N = 115) completed measures of impostorism, self-handicapping, parental bonding (for each parent) and Esoteric Analogies test with confidence judg-ments. Impostor feelings were predicted by paternal overprotection and lack of paternal care. Self-handi-capping scores were predicted by lack of maternal care. A significant relationship was found between impostorism and self-handicapping. Supporting the nature of the impostor phenomenon, impostors showed a ''gap'' between assessment of their performance and actual task-related achievements.
An interaction effect indicates that a relationship is contingent upon the values of another (moderator) variable. Thus, interaction effects describe conditions under which relationships change in strength and/or direction. Understanding interaction effects is essential for the advancement of the organizational sciences because they highlight a theory's boundary conditions. We describe procedures for estimating and interpreting interaction effects using moderated multiple regression (MMR). We distill the technical literature for a general readership of organizational science researchers and include specific best-practice recommendations regarding actions researchers can take before and after data collection to improve the accuracy of MMR-based conclusions regarding interaction effects. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Individuals who suffer from impostor fears harbour secret intense feelings of fraudulence in the face of achievement tasks and situations. This study investigated affective and attributional reactions of impostors following success and failure feedback. N = 164 undergraduate students were presented with a vignette depicting either hypothetical success or failure outcomes in a 2 (feedback: success, fail) × 2 (impostor fears: high low) between-subjects factorial design. Participants then responded to post-vignette items which assessed their cognitive, attributional and affective reactions, and completed several personality measures including the Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale [Clance P. R. (1985). The impostor phenomenon: Overcoming the fear that haunts your success. Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers]. Elements of perfectionism were evident in a propensity on the part of students with high impostor scores to externalise success and hold high standards for self-evaluation, while being intolerant of their failure to meet these standards. Impostors' greater reporting of negative emotions, together with their tendency to attribute failure internally and overgeneralise a single failure to their overall self-concepts underscore the veracity of clinical observations which suggest links between impostor fears, anxiety, and depression. These findings are important to an understanding of the dynamics and treatment of impostor fears.
Both imposter fears and ability-avoid achievement goals are assumed to be grounded in fear of failure and a general lack of confidence in one’s abilities. This study investigated the relationship between imposter fears and achievement goals. College students (N = 135) completed the Clance Imposter Phenomenon Scale (Clance, 1985) and several measures relevant to achievement goal theory. Both imposter fears and ability-avoid achievement goals were positively related to test anxiety and negatively related to confidence in one’s intelligence. Women expressed greater imposter fears than men and were also higher on ability-avoid goals. Using hierarchical regression, we examined the pattern of achievement goals that related to imposter fears for men and women. Among men, imposter fears were primarily associated with ability-avoid goals. In contrast, among women, imposter fears were positively related to ability-approach goals and negatively related to task goals. Further, among women, but not men, endorsement of an entity theory of intelligence was associated with imposter fears. Implications for well-being are discussed.
This paper draws together the as yet nascent literature on the development of failure-avoidant patterns of behaviour. These are behaviours intended to minimise risk to self-worth in the event of failure, thereby avoiding the negative impact of poor performance in terms of damage to self-worth. Self-worth protection, self-handicapping, impostor fears, procrastination and defensive pessimism fit this category. Increasingly the literature reveals arresting parallels in aspects of parenting and family messages that lay behind these behaviours. On the basis of aspects of parenting and personality variables common to failure-avoidant behaviours, implications are drawn in terms of the manner in which parents and teachers may help to contain their performance-limiting consequences.
Hypotheses involving mediation are common in the behavioral sciences. Mediation exists when a predictor affects a dependent variable indirectly through at least one intervening variable, or mediator. Methods to assess mediation involving multiple simultaneous mediators have received little attention in the methodological literature despite a clear need. We provide an overview of simple and multiple mediation and explore three approaches that can be used to investigate indirect processes, as well as methods for contrasting two or more mediators within a single model. We present an illustrative example, assessing and contrasting potential mediators of the relationship between the helpfulness of socialization agents and job satisfaction. We also provide SAS and SPSS macros, as well as Mplus and LISREL syntax, to facilitate the use of these methods in applications.
Two studies are reported describing the development of a short-form of the state scale of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) for use in circumstances where the full-form is inappropriate. Using item-remainder correlations, the most highly correlated anxiety-present and anxiety-absent items were combined, and correlated with scores obtained using the full-form of the STAI. Correlation coefficients greater than .90 were obtained using four and six items from the STAI. Acceptable reliability and validity were obtained using six items. The use of this six-item short-form produced scores similar to those obtained using the full-form. This was so for several groups of subjects manifesting a range of anxiety levels. This short-form of the STAI is therefore sensitive to fluctuations in state anxiety. When compared with the full-form of the STAI, the six-item version offers a briefer and just as acceptable scale for subjects while maintaining results that are comparable to those obtained using the full-form of the STAI.
Three studies tested theoretical assumptions regarding the impostor phenomenon. In Study 1, participants completed measures of impostorism, rated themselves, and indicated how they thought other people regarded them. Contrary to standard conceptualizations of impostorism, high impostors were characterized by a combination of low self-appraisals and low reflected appraisals. Study 2 was an experiment designed to determine whether the behaviors associated with the impostor phenomenon are interpersonal strategies. Participants were told that they were expected to perform either better or worse than they had previously predicted on an upcoming test, then expressed their reactions anonymously or publicly. High impostors expressed lower performance expectations than low impostors only when their responses were public. When expectations for performance were low, participants high in impostorism responded differently under public than private conditions. Study 3 examined the possibility that high scores on measures of impostorism may reflect two types of impostors--true impostors (who believe that others perceive them too positively) and strategic impostors (who only claim that they are not as good as other people think). The results did not support this distinction; however, evidence for the strategic nature of impostorism was again obtained. Although people may experience true feelings of impostorism, these studies suggest that the characteristics attributed to so-called impostors are partly interpersonal, self-presentational behaviors designed to minimize the implications of poor performance.