Correlates of the Impostor Phenomenon among Undergraduate Entrepreneurs

Abstract

The impostor phenomenon describes the self-attribution of success to luck and interpersonal skills rather than to intelligence and ability, despite external validation to the contrary. Evidence suggests the presence of impostor characteristics among a group of 63 undergraduate entrepreneurs. More intense impostor feelings were associated with an external locus of control and a stronger perceived effect of work on family life. Implications for entrepreneurial performance are discussed and questions for research are presented.

The therapist's experiencing in family therapy practice

“…This can evoke feelings of impotence and helplessness in the therapist. It may also stir up the issue of feeling like an impostor (Clance and Imes, 1978; Sightler, and Wilson, 2001), as it can give rise to therapists' secret fear that they are not worthy of their position as therapists: ‘When clients say, “help me, cure me, reach me,” what on earth do they want? And why, especially, do they want it from me?’ (Frosh, 2004, p. 60).…”

An Inner Barrier to Career Development: Preconditions of the Impostor Phenomenon and Consequences for Career Development

“…In line with Savickas’s (2002 , p. 167) statement that one who does not feel safe in daily life is more concerned with “surviving the present than planning tomorrow,” the IP is predestinated to be negatively related to career planning, a variable that includes proactive designing of career plans, which is influenced by the locus of control ( Aryee and Debrah, 1992 ). Impostors were already shown to have an external locus of control ( Sightler and Wilson, 2001 ). Generally, career planning refers to future-orientated thinking and imagining possible pathways to achieve career goals.…”

“…Many studies have examined the relation of the phenomenon and various clinical variables, such as depression and (social) anxiety ( Chrisman et al, 1995 ; Henning et al, 1998 ; Thompson et al, 1998 ; September et al, 2001 ; Bernard et al, 2002 ; Oriel et al, 2004 ; McGregor et al, 2008 ). Yet despite emerging recognition of the importance of impostor feelings in different cultures ( Chae et al, 1995 ; Clance et al, 1995 ) and different groups, such as marketing managers ( Fried-Buchalter, 1997 ), undergraduate entrepreneurs ( Sightler and Wilson, 2001 ), engineering students ( French et al, 2008 ), medical, dental, nursing, and pharmacy students ( Henning et al, 1998 ), and residents in family medicine ( Oriel et al, 2004 ) and internal medicine ( Legassie et al, 2008 ), empirical research on the IP in the context of career development is only beginning to emerge and remains sparse. To the best of our knowledge, only two studies have focused on the preconditions for and specific negative effects of the IP on occupational attitudes ( Jöstl et al, 2012 ; Vergauwe et al, 2015 ).…”

“Overcoming the Fear That Haunts Your Success” – The Effectiveness of Interventions for Reducing the Impostor Phenomenon

“…More recently, the syndrome has been thought to be a set of non-or subclinical cognitive features (e.g., Vergauwe et al, 2015;Neureiter and Traut-Mattausch, 2016a), and the IP has emerged as a more suitable term. Diverse expressions of the IP have been recognized in different cultures (Chae et al, 1995;Clance et al, 1995) as well as in different groups, such as marketing managers (Fried-Buchalter, 1997), undergraduate entrepreneurs (Sightler and Wilson, 2001), engineering students (French et al, 2008), medical, dental, nursing, and pharmacy students (Henning et al, 1998), and residents in family medicine (Oriel et al, 2004) and internal medicine (Legassie et al, 2008). In accordance with the original description of the IP (Clance and Imes, 1978), IP thoughts develop based on an individual's learning history, starting in childhood, in terms of developmental lessons of correlation and causality.…”