Impostor Syndrome is not a medical diagnosis, but rather a name for a set of experiences that are understandable and close to different people. We recognize ourselves when we read about this "syndrome", although there is no single reason behind the list of manifestations. It is similar to a fever or a runny nose - by themselves, they are not some kind of disease and can arise from a sore throat, flu, acute respiratory infections, or something else.
From the point of view of Soviet clinical psychology, a "syndrome" is a group of symptoms that naturally appear together due to a common acting cause. And the authors of the term believed that there was such a reason for the impostor syndrome, but later studies refuted this opinion.
It is now believed that although the "syndrome" reflects real experiences, there are very different mechanisms behind it - and therefore it is much more effective to work with these experiences separately than to separate them into a separate "syndrome." In this sense, the original term "impostor phenomenon" is more accurate - many people actually perceive their success as an accident and are afraid of exposure: they say, others will sort it out and understand that they do not match their position or qualifications.
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1979 year. Pauline Clance and Susan Ames published the article "The Imposter Phenomenon Among Highly Achieving Women," which pioneered the term Impostor Syndrome. They studied women who were objectively successful in their careers but still felt like cheats. According to Clance and Imes, "impostor syndrome" is a kind of "inner experience of intellectual falsehood" in people unable to digest their success. They concluded that the "syndrome" has six characteristics (more on these in the next section):
- The Impostor Cycle.
- Striving to be special or to be the best.
- Superman aspect / superwoman.
- Fear of mistakes or failure.
- Denying one's own competence and ignoring praise.
- Fear and guilt for your own success.
1985 year. Harvey and Katz defined "impostor syndrome" as "a psychological pattern rooted in a strong and hidden sense of being a cheater when something needs to be done." In their opinion, the "impostor syndrome" should have three signs:
- The belief that you are deceiving other people.
- Fear of being exposed.
- Failure to recognize one's achievements, abilities, intelligence, or qualifications.
1991 year. Collegian and Sternberg coined the term "perceived fraud" to avoid confusion between "impostor syndrome" and commonplace fraud. They saw Impostor Syndrome not as an emotional disorder, but as a combination of cognitive and affective elements - that is, a fixed pattern of thinking.
2005 year. Kets de Vries studied the phenomenon of deception and included the "impostor syndrome" in it. He considered cheating to be a social norm - after all, we must hide our weaknesses and keep within the generally accepted standards of behavior. According to Kets de Vries, going beyond these limits generates two extremes: unethical deception (banal fraud) and neurotic deception (that is, "impostor syndrome"). Consider what he meant by the norm and the extremes.
- Norm. Each of us is an impostor, because we strive to correspond to some ideas of others and demonstrate a public “I” that is different from our real ones.
- Real impostors. Demonstrate a false personality to deceive others and are gratified when they succeed. Such people may have a real fear of being exposed.
- Neurotic impostors. Their experience of cheating is subjective, meaning they are not doing anything truly inappropriate. Such people feel like cheaters regardless of the opinion of outside observers. They are characterized by fear of failure or success, perfectionism, procrastination, workaholism.
All definitions of scientists agree on one thing: "impostor syndrome" is the subjective psychological experience of a person who is afraid of exposure and is sure that he is a deceiver.
Elena Stankovskaya - PhD in Psychology, Consultant Psychologist, Associate Professor at the Higher School of Economics, author of the book "Transactional Analysis: 7 Lectures for the Magisteria Project", leads a block on "Impostor Syndrome" on the People Mindset course on human-centered management .
Characteristics of the "impostor syndrome" according to Clance and Ames
Paulina Clance claims: if a person has at least two of the listed characteristics, he is susceptible to "impostor syndrome." Let's take a closer look at them.
The Imposter's Cycle
The imposter cycle begins when a person is faced with the need to achieve something - for example, a study or a project at work:
- Anxiety arises in a person.
- Anxiety provokes either over-training or procrastination. Moreover, procrastination is followed by a stage of intense "doing" - after all, you have to meet the deadline.
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The impostor cycle has two permanent consequences - overload and an increased sense of cheating.
Overload. It arises due to the fact that the efforts and energy that are spent on achieving the goal significantly exceed the necessary ones and interfere with other priorities. Moreover, people with the "impostor syndrome" are aware of this problem, but in practice they can almost never break this pattern of behavior and limit themselves only to the necessary efforts.
Increased sense of fraud from cycle to cycle.Paradox: every time success is repeated, the "impostor syndrome" only intensifies. Pauline Clance suggested that the "impostors" have their own ideal of success and excessive expectations from the accomplished goals. They simply ignore their accomplishments if the actual performance is at odds with their ideal standard. At the same time, "impostors" are excellent students who value their work unjustifiably low, which means that each achievement further emphasizes the gap between real and imagined standards of success, reinforcing the "impostor syndrome."
The Impostor Cycle - From "The Impostor Phenomenon", Jaruwan Sakulku, James Alexander
The need to be special, the best
Often people with Impostor Syndrome secretly want to be better than their peers or peers. Throughout childhood, they could be the first in class or school, but when they come to university or get a job, they understand that there are many outstanding people in the world, and their talents are not phenomenal. As a result, "impostors" simply ignore their abilities and come to the conclusion that they are simply stupid.
Superwoman / Superman Aspects
This point is closely related to the previous one. People with "impostor syndrome" demand of themselves perfection in all areas of life. They set themselves almost unattainable standards and then feel overwhelmed and frustrated.
Fear of failure
"Impostors" are very worried when it is necessary to achieve something - they are terrified of failure. Making mistakes or not doing everything to the highest standard, they feel shame humiliation. For most people with Impostor Syndrome, fear becomes the main driver. Result: They try to reduce the risk of failure and start working too hard.
Feelings of incompetence and understatement of praise
People with "impostor syndrome" cannot accept compliments and believe in their merits, they tend to attribute success to external factors, ignore positive reviews and objective indicators of success. Moreover, they make efforts to prove to everyone: we did not deserve praise, this is not our achievement. But "impostor syndrome" is a much deeper and more serious phenomenon than coquetry or false modesty.
Fear and guilt for success
"Impostors" often feel guilty for being different from others or doing better than others - they are very afraid of being rejected. Another fear of them is excessive demands or expectations from others. "Impostors" are not confident that they will be able to maintain their level of efficiency and disclaim additional responsibility, and excessive demands or expectations may "reveal" their "deception".
When and why to go to a psychologist
If you discovered at least two of the characteristics from the last chapter, then you have "impostor syndrome." But it is not always necessary to get rid of it - only if the "syndrome" interferes with living or building a career. In a first approximation, this is easy to understand:
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"Impostors" often choose some kind of role model for themselves - the very image of "smart brother" or "smart sister" to which they strive. Moreover, it can be both a living person and a historical person, as in Mayakovsky's "Letter to Comrade Kostrov":
… To break loose,
jealous of Copernicus,
him,
and not the husband of Marya Ivanna,
considering him
his
rival.
But even if a person with “impostor syndrome” achieves his goals and objectively outgrows this ideal image, he will not get rid of problems, but will continue to spend energy fighting fear and doubts. In this case, there can be two scenarios:
- We do not notice at all that we have outgrown our role model, and imperceptibly for ourselves switch to a comparison with the new Copernicus.
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As a result, the life scenario does not change, but a distorted perception appears: we take only those facts that confirm our idea of ourselves. And a mental system is built that supports itself with all its might, ignoring the facts that contradict it.
Another reason to tackle this topic is the avoidance behavior that underlies Impostor Syndrome. If you often choose an activity that helps to hide that you do not know something, give up new heights, self-expression, hide your thoughts out of fear - this is a reason to reconsider your ideas about yourself. Having dealt with all this, we get more freedom - we can choose activities not out of fear, but on the basis of what ignites us and what we really want.
The basis of the "syndrome" is internal conflict
The impostor syndrome is paradoxical: I feel like a deceiver, but at the same time I know that it is not so, it is just a “syndrome”. That is, some part of me believes in my strength and in the fact that I receive recognition deservedly.
Consider an example: a woman works in a male team, in a position that is traditionally considered “male” in society. And they probably face negative attitudes towards themselves, devaluation of their work, and mistrust. Such an attitude of others reinforces internal doubts about competence, but the woman does not quit, moreover, she strives to grow and build a career.
Thus, under these doubts, there is almost always inner confidence - no, after all, I am smart, capable. I attribute my success to chance, and at the same time I think that when I do this, it's a "syndrome."
As a result, "impostor syndrome" is not some kind of total insecurity, but a constant tension between confidence and doubts about one's abilities. After all, if a person is sincerely sure of his incompetence, then why should he achieve anything? He will live calmly at his level and will not strive for something great.
And there may be different reasons and manifestations. Many people have the illusion that if they were truly smart, they would be able to do everything very easily - and in any area. Roughly speaking, if a person from year to year cannot master some narrow part of his work, then he has the feeling that in other areas he is a complete zero. This is to blame for the stereotyped idea that truly smart people do everything almost intuitively: they get behind the wheel and immediately knows how to drive. And if you have to "squirm" at the circuit for 20 hours in a row, then you are definitely an impostor and a deceiver.
There is a second common manifestation: you cannot show that I am proud of myself, that I am cool or cool. And here the reason may be hidden in childhood, when a pattern of behavior is imposed on the child: do not stick your head out, do not attract attention, do not show your success, sit silently and quietly, hide. There are also more individual cases.
For example, a talented and bright student goes to another school, but there his talents are not appreciated and there is no opportunity to show them - they are simply not interesting to anyone. And when in the future some "strange" people come to him and say: you are very smart, cool, you are doing great - he cannot believe them, because he has already formed a strong opinion of himself.
It turns out that the core of the "impostor syndrome" is script beliefs and basic ideas about oneself, as well as how others perceive us. And even if I have accumulated a large collection of external achievements, my persistent inner conviction is no longer challenged. Because scenario beliefs support our worldview, stabilize it, shape the perception of reality. A simple example: if I was a black sheep at school - smarter and more talented than others, and that's why they told me all the time that I was not ok, then when people suddenly start praising me, then my patterns do not allow this praise to be digested and I think that they are wrong or some strange ones.
In the second part of the article, we will analyze why the “impostor syndrome” occurs, what types of “impostors” are identified by scientists and how to cope with the “syndrome”.
Bibliography
- The imposter phenomenon in high achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention, Pauline Rose Clance, Suzanne Ament Imes
- A validation study of the Harvey Impostor Phenomenon Scale, Edwards, P. W., Zeichner
- Yes, Impostor Syndrome Is Real. Here's How to Deal With It
- The Impostor Phenomenon, Jaruwan Sakulku, James Alexander
- Imposter phenomenon and self-handicapping: Links with parenting styles and self-confidence
- When Will They Blow My Cover?: The Impostor Phenomenon Among Austrian Doctoral Students
- Impostor phenomenon and mental health: The influence of racial discrimination and gender
- Impostor feelings as a moderator and mediator of the relationship between perceived discrimination and mental health among racial/ethnic minority college students
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