Impostor fears and perfectionistic concern over mistakes

By Ted Thompson, P. Foreman, F. Martin. 2000

129 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Impostors are outwardly successful individuals who experience secret intense feelings of fraudulence in achievement situations. Elements of perfectionism are evident in a tendency on the part of impostors to maintain high standards for personal evaluation while being critical of their inability to realise these standards. This study utilised a 2 (impostor status: high, low)×2 (task type: high vs. low frequency of mistakes) between-subjects factorial design to investigate the connection between impostor fears and perfectionistic concern over mistakes. Sixty undergraduate students completed either a high or low frequency of mistake Stroop Colour-Word task, following which they completed items assessing perceptions of their performance, concern over mistakes, perceptions of control and anxiety, the Positive and Negative Affect Scale and the Russell Causal Dimension Scale. Links with perfectionistic concern over mistakes and anxiety were strongly supported, with impostors reporting less control, greater anxiety, more negative affect and greater concern over mistakes than non-impostors irrespective of experimental condition. The roles of anxiety and perfectionist cognitions in the maintenance of impostor fears are discussed.

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

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c6a64cad43af985fcde1a6f5f9ec923298b557da

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In Clinical Psychology

In Cognitive Neuroscience

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Citations in the corpus

The Impostor Phenomenon (2011, background): “Thompson et al. (2000) found that Impostors have a higher level of fear of negative evaluation than non-Impostors and the motive behind their achievement behaviour is to meet their perception of other people’s standards.”
Fear of Being Exposed: The Trait-Relatedness of the Impostor Phenomenon and its Relevance in the Work Context (2015, background): “It is important to note that in contrast to most of the prior IP studies (e.g., Ferrari 2005; Oriel et al. 2004; Sonnak and Towell, 2001; Thompson et al. 2000), we adopted a dimensional approach to measure impostor tendencies instead of the categorical approach that distinguishes ‘impostors’ from ‘n”
Faculty of Color in Higher Education: Exploring the Intersections of Identity, Impostorship, and Internalized Racism (2014, background): “Thompson, Foreman, and Martin (2000) found links between impostor fears and perfectionistic concern over mistakes.”
Impostor fears: Links with self-presentational concerns and self-handicapping behaviours (2006, background): “Consistent with and extending findings (Ross et al., 2002; Thompson et al., 2000), these results indicate that impostor fears are associated with displays of public perfection, not simply general self-presentation concerns.”
When Will They Blow My Cover?: The Impostor Phenomenon Among Austrian Doctoral Students (2012, methodology): “Based on previous research (Fried-Buchalter, 1997; Sonnak & Towell, 2001; Thompson et al., 2000) the reported associations with the single motivational aspects fear of success, fear of failure, and self-esteem should be taken into consideration.”