The Relationship between Racial Identity Attitudes, Worldview, and African American Graduate Students' Experience of the Imposter Phenomenon

Abstract

The present study examined the relationships between African American graduate students' experience of the imposter phenomenon and their racial identity attitudes, worldview perspectives, academic self-concept, background characteristics, and graduate school environment. It was hypothesized that racial identity, Afrocentricity, academic self-concept, and certain demographic characteristics would differentially predict imposter feelings. The results of multiple regression analyses revealed support for some but not all of the hypotheses.

“Those invisible barriers are real”: The Progression of First-Generation Students Through Doctoral Education

“…This phenomenon or syndrome can be debilitating for individuals, particularly since these students work to ensure that their "stupidity" will not be discovered by others. The imposter phenomenon also has been connected to academic self-concept among graduate students (Ewing, Richardson, James-Myers, & Russell, 1996) and self-efficacy of recent doctoral graduates (Haley, 2006). In this study, a feeling of belonging (or a lack thereof) was discussed, even eliciting tears from some participants concerned that they would be "found out" or explicitly told they could not persist.…”

Faculty of Color in Higher Education: Exploring the Intersections of Identity, Impostorship, and Internalized Racism

“…Scholars found the presence of impostor syndrome or intellectual phoniness among faculty of color (Brookfield, 1993;Clance & Imes, 1978;Cozzarelli & Major, 1990;Ewing, Richardson, James-Myers, & Russell, 1996;Fried-Buchalter, 1997;Kumar & Jagacinski, 2006;Rothblum, 1988). More specifically, the scholarship offered the following subcategories of impostor syndrome: (a) feeling like a fake, or, the belief that one does not deserve his or her success or professional position and that somehow other have been deceived into thinking otherwise; (b) attributing success to luck, or, to other external reasons and not to one's own internal abilities; and (c) discounting success, or, the tendency to downplay or disregard achievement of success.…”

“…Therefore, they seek silence in class to prevent unmasking as a fraud. In one of few studies involving African-American graduate students, Ewing et al (1996) examined the relationship among impostor syndrome, academic self-concept, racial identity attitudes, and worldview perspectives among African-American graduate students. Findings confirmed the presence of impostor syndrome, emphasizing the importance of worldviews (ideas about the world in which they live) over racial identity (sense of blackness).…”

“…The dearth of racial analysis is curious particularly given well-established links between identity socialization and impostorship (Clance & Imes, 1978). In the following section, we concentrate our discussion and recommendations in a framework of mentoring and professional development given the literature's suggestions of these activities as salient interventions (Brookfield, 2005;Cowman & Ferrari, 2001;Ewing et al, 1996).…”

Jumping Into The Deep: Imposter Syndrome, Defining Success and the New Librarian

“…Research can be seen for academics in general (Knights & Clarke, 2014;Hutchins, 2015), minorities (Muhs, Niemann, González, & Harris, 2012;Earle Reybold & Alamia, 2008;Craddock, Birnbaum, Rodriguez, Cobb, & Zeeh, 2011;Farrel, Alabi, Whaley, & Jenda, 2017), mature students (Chapman, 2017;Johnson, 2004), and undergraduate and graduate students (Kolligian & Sternberg, 1991;Ewing, Richardson, James-Myers, & Russell, 1996;Craddock, Birnbaum, Rodriguez, Cobb, & Zeeh, 2011). These examples work in conjunction with other variables, but demonstrate that librarianship is not unique in terms of experiences of IS.…”