"Am I for real?" Predicting impostor tendencies from self-handicapping and affective components

By Shaun E. Cowman, Joseph R. Ferrari. 2002

141 citations recorded by the source corpus.

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 ( R 2 = 0.43). Based on these results it seems that strong impostor tendencies are related to, and best predicted by, self-handicapping behaviors and shame prone affect.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/235102188b59f082431c48ccbf94cde7d1327190

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Citations in the corpus

Imposter phenomenon and self-handicapping: Links with parenting styles and self-confidence☆ (2006, background): “A substantial relationship is known to exist between IP and SH (e.g., Cowman & Ferrari, 2002; Ross, Stewart, Mugge, & Fultz, 2001), and the constructs appear to share several affective components, including low levels of self-confidence.”
Outing the Imposter: A Study Exploring Imposter Phenomenon among Higher Education Faculty (2015, background): “…individuals also tended to engage in high levels of impression management and behavioral handicapping in their attempts to prevent others from perceiving them as a fraud; however, such attempts did not typically reduce the fraudulent feelings even when success was achieved (Cowman & Ferrari, 2002).”
Faculty of Color in Higher Education: Exploring the Intersections of Identity, Impostorship, and Internalized Racism (2014, background): “For instance, Cowman and Ferrari (2001) found that individuals with strong levels of impostor syndrome were also more likely to self-handicap, or sabotage themselves in their efforts.”
It’s a Bittersweet Symphony, this Life: Fragile Academic Selves and Insecure Identities at Work (2014, background): “It is often treated as a pathological condition deriving from a “devalued self image” (Cowman & Ferrari, 2002, p. 121), requiring early remedial action (Topping & Kimmel, 1985).”
Fear of Being Exposed: The Trait-Relatedness of the Impostor Phenomenon and its Relevance in the Work Context (2015, background): “2008) and shame (Cowman and Ferrari 2002), substantiate the importance of Neuroticism as a disposi-”