Author : Kadie Renee Rackley
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (15 download)
Book Synopsis Examining the Role of Impostor Phenomenon in the College Experience by : Kadie Renee Rackley
Download or read book Examining the Role of Impostor Phenomenon in the College Experience written by Kadie Renee Rackley and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Impostorism is a phenomenon where competent individuals feel phony at school or work and fear being discovered as a fake. Impostor syndrome has recently become a trending topic for discussing why many feel like a fraud at work or school, even though the construct was conceptualized in the 1970s (Clance & Imes, 1978). Much of the extant research about impostor phenomenon has used undergraduate samples, yet little knowledge exists about how this impostorism functions within the college context. The purpose of this study was to examine how impostor phenomenon operates for undergraduates and how it affects their college experience. Gender schema and social learning theories provided the framework for assessing gender stigma consciousness (GSC), professor approachability, and the controllability of causal attributions for success as predictors of undergraduates’ impostorism, and in turn how these impact their college experience defined as sense of belonging at their university, psychological well-being, and GPA. Path analyses demonstrated GSC positively predicted impostorism, and professor approachability and attribution controllability negatively predicted students’ impostorism. These also showed impostorism negatively impacted students’ well-being and sense of belonging at college. No relationship was found between impostorism and GPA. Further, t-tests and multiple group path analyses demonstrated that the impact of impostorism was similar for men and women undergraduates, but some predictors of impostorism operated differentially by gender. Professor approachability predicted women’s impostorism but not men’s impostor fears. These findings and their implications were discussed within the context of gender differences in attributions and the historical and social context of higher education. One of the most significant implications is that professors’ interactions with students matter, especially for traditionally marginalized students. Inasmuch as future research should aim to expand on these findings, this study is an important first step into investigating how impostorism operates among undergraduates specifically and why ambivalent findings prevail about gender differences in impostorism. The results of this study serve to inform instructors, college administrators, and researchers about the importance of considering the psychological adjustment of students, even those thriving academically, and to address the sources of impostorism on their college campuses.