Tag Archives: Imposter Syndrome

CARED Perspectives – Imposter Syndrome as a Minority: The Struggle is Real

This blog post is a part of the series, “CARED Perspectives,” developed by the APAGS Committee for the Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Diversity. This series will discuss current events and how these events relate to graduate students in psychology. If you are interested in contributing to the CARED Perspectives series, please contact Lincoln Hill.

Imposter Syndrome as a Minority: The Struggle is Real

By Fiona C. Thomas

Years ago, I successfully competed, and was selected for a federal government position, a training spot reserved for few undergraduate students. Following a phone interview, I accepted the position, moved to a new city, and was eager to start. On day one my supervisor greeted me with these words, “I wasn’t expecting someone who looked like you based on your name!” His comment was not intended to be malicious. He was being truthful about his thoughts. Yet, this was the first time I felt like an imposter. My name implied a White candidate, not someone who looked like me. Did I need to work harder to make up for this? What were my supervisor’s expectations of me now versus when he interviewed me? And wait a minute, why did I immediately doubt that my experiences and credentials – all of which got me the job – were suddenly insufficient? What did my name or the color of my skin matter?

As a graduate student, I have come to understand this experience as imposter syndrome. The term was coined four decades ago by psychologists, Pauline R. Clance and Suzanne A. Imes based on their work with high-achieving women. It connotes an internal feeling of intellectual phoniness despite ample objective evidence to the contrary (Clance & Imes, 1978). Indeed, graduate students, academics, and many successful individuals (men included) will not only be familiar with this term, but will have experienced that powerful fear of being exposed as a “fraud”. Recent research shows that members of minority groups feel this phenomenon even more profoundly. For instance, the work of Dr. Kevin Cokley and colleagues has pointed to the strong association between discrimination and feelings of impostorism. His research additionally suggests that for ethnic minority college students, impostorism is a greater predictor of negative mental health outcomes than discrimination. These findings have powerful implications. In addition to labeling it and recognizing the moments we feel it most potently, what can underrepresented minority graduate students do to tackle imposter syndrome?

Dr. Sindhumathi Revuluri, associate dean of undergraduate education at Harvard University, recently wrote an insightful piece on overcoming imposter syndrome. A few months ago, the New York Times published an article on this topic as well, particularly with regards to the experiences of minority groups. I pull from the words of wisdom outlined in these articles and have peppered my own learnings below regarding strategies that I have found helpful for tackling impostorism:

  • Surround yourself with mentors who simultaneously uplift and challenge you: This does not necessarily mean finding mentors who resemble you and have had similar experiences as you. I have come to learn that this is not easy to do. Instead, surround yourself with individuals who encourage you to not only find your space but to feel confident to own that space with integrity.
  • Take pride in Slay being the forerunner: Underrepresented populations bring a particularly powerful perspective in academic settings. These voices are not always heard. If you are doing research that no one in your department is doing, or if you’re working clinically with a population that rarely gets access to mental health services, these are major accomplishments. It takes significantly more time, energy, and effort to enter a space that has traditionally not belonged to underrepresented communities, and to then be the advocate for underrepresented areas of research. Once you get there, trust that it is because of your merit, hard-work, and persistence.
  • It is okay to say no and set boundaries: Feeling the need to prove oneself can result in the urge to say ‘yes’ – yes to every new project that may improve your skills as a researcher or clinician, yes to speaking on diversity issues in your department, or yes to committee service simply to bring a diverse voice to the table. Indeed, there is extra emotional, physical, psychological, and intellectual labor involved when you try to enter a homogenous field. However, trying to be everything to everyone can ultimately dilute the quality of your work and do more harm than good.
  • Genuine humility is different than feeling like an imposter: Even with certain lived experiences, there are limitations to our knowledge. Acknowledge this, own it, and ask for help when needed.
  • Pay it forward: When I decided to pursue clinical psychology as a career, I did not personally know any South Asian women in this field. This initially amplified my feelings of imposter syndrome. Who was I supposed to look to as a role model? Given these experiences, I find it deeply rewarding to connect with others who are in the early stages of their graduate degree. I may not  have had mentors who looked like me, but I had mentors who challenged me to find my voice. It is not always possible to repay such acts, but you can pay it forward. An honest conversation about the trials and tribulations of impostorism as an ethnic or racial minority can be quite powerful for others struggling with these feelings.

We want to hear from you!

  • What have your experiences been with imposter syndrome?
  • Are there strategies you have found particularly helpful for coping?
  • What are your thoughts on this topic?

Please share your thoughts below in the comments section!

References

Clance, P. R., & Imes, S. A. (1978). The imposter phenomenon in high achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 15(3), 241-247. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0086006

Cokley, K., McClain, S., Enciso, A.. & Martinez, M. (2013). An Examination of the Impact of Minority Status Stress and Impostor Feelings on the Mental Health of Diverse Ethnic Minority College Students. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 41(2), 82-95. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1912.2013.00029.x

Cokley, K., Smith, L., Bernard, D., Hurst, A., Jackson, S., Stone, S., . . . Roberts, D. (2017). Impostor feelings as a moderator and mediator of the relationship between perceived discrimination and mental health among racial/ethnic minority college students. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 64(2), 141-154. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/cou0000198

Revuluri. S. (2018, October 4). How to Overcome Impostor Syndrome. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/article/How-to-Overcome-Impostor/244700.

Wong, K. (2018, June 12). Dealing With Impostor Syndrome When You’re Treated as an Impostor. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/12/smarter-living/dealing-with-impostor-syndrome-when-youre-treated-as-an-impostor.html.

Resources

Below, are some podcasts that may be of interest. We hope you enjoy these and look forward to hearing your thoughts on the topic!

Mentoring Hour for Students of Color Applying to Doctoral Programs
Joy Zelinski Marquez and Farzana Saleem help prospective students think through program considerations that are salient to students of color (e.g., geography, culture and climate) and increase awareness about different types of psychology programs, admissions criteria and opportunities to study multicultural issues. (Web chat recorded May 2016)

Mental Health of High-Achieving Students of Color
Kevin Cokley, PhD, describes his new research on perceived discrimination, impostor feelings, and the mental health of high-achieving students of color. Cokley is director of the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis, a professor of counseling psychology and African and African diaspora studies and a faculty affiliate of the Center for African and African American Studies at the University of Texas-Austin. (Recorded December 2014)

Additional podcasts on graduate school, careers and additional hot topics can be found here.

We  hope that you have enjoyed reading the latest ‘CARED Perspectives’ post. Check out these other articles in the series:

I Have a Condition?

Hello everybody!Lisa Murphy

This is my ever first blog post. I am extremely new to the blogging world, which means that I have plenty to familiarize myself with! I’ve decided to start blogging for two main reasons:

1) It’s something I have always (well, since blogging became a thing) wanted to do but never had the courage to. Recently however, a dear friend adamantly exclaimed, “Lisa honestly! If I can do it, anyone can do it!” So, here I am (let’s see if she was right!)

2) I need all the writing practice I can get, given that I am merely 1 month into a 4-year PhD program!

The blog is called PhD Imposter purely on the basis of the following true story:

When first considering the idea of actually undertaking a PhD, I was having a conversation with my then undergraduate thesis supervisor and my now PhD supervisor/mentor. She was in the middle of listing the various reasons why she believed that I would be a suitable PhD candidate (none of which I agreed with). One can only take so many encouraging commendations, and so I couldn’t hold it in any longer! I blurted out, “Okay, I really think that you think that I’m better than what I actually am.” In those exact words.

After asking me to clarify, I did, and she paused for a moment, then looked at me earnestly. I honestly thought that the next words to come out of her mouth would resemble something along the lines of, “Yeah, maybe you’re right, forget what I said, best of luck with your future career.” Instead she uttered, “You have a condition you know – and there’s a name for it”. “A condition?” “Yeah, a condition”.

Ashamed, the first thought to pop into my mind was not, “I wonder what is this condition could be?,” but rather, “I wonder if there’s a pill that I can take to make it go away.” I immediately envisioned a morning fixture, like a chewable vitamin C pill, that would eradicate the condition over a period of time. Filtering my thoughts before I spoke, I decided to err on the side of caution and simply ask, “So…what’s the condition?”

“Imposter Syndrome”, she replied.

I must have had the unfortunate look of a panic-stricken little Albert (post conditioning), just as he encountered his very first white furry object.

Once she began to explain, I was utterly dumbfounded. I don’t know if any of you have ever had that experience when it feels like somebody is reading your mind and communicating your exact thoughts right back to you – it is both liberating and somewhat bizarre. It was as if she had been the homunculus inside of my head since the beginning of my academic career (i.e., primary school, age 4). The more she spoke, the more amazed I became. After all, this was my secret that she was unearthing, this dreaded secret that I didn’t really belong in the building at all – everybody just thought I did! I couldn’t believe that there was a name for it! And better yet, I couldn’t believe that other people, particularly in academia, felt this way. I immediately began to laugh at myself!

I decided to do some searching (largely in hopes of finding an immediate and effective cure!) Originally coined by Clance and Imes (1978)*, the term itself “is used to designate an internal experience of intellectual phonies, which appears to be particularly prevalent and intense among a select sample of high achieving women” (originally their research focused predominantly on career women). Today, most people would recognize the expression as signifying a ‘pathological’ inability to internalize one’s own achievements, such as when people believe that their successes are merely due to luck or chance, and consider themselves less able and less intelligent when compared to their peers. As such, they begin to feel out-of-place amongst their colleagues, ultimately coming to believe that they do not belong where they are (hence the term ‘imposter’).

I must admit that to this day an enormous part of me still longs for a pill that could be taken every morning to eradicate this debilitating condition. But alas we, self-proclaimed imposters, must chew our vitamin C pills instead and struggle on!

‘Til next time.

*Clance, P. R., & Imes, S. (1978). The Imposter Phenomenon in High Achieving Women: Dynamics and Therapeutic Intervention. Psychotherapy Theory, Research and Practice, 15(3), 241-247.

Editors Note: Lisa Murphy is a doctoral student in the School of Applied Psychology, University College of Cork in Ireland. This post was co-published on her blog: PhD Imposter. For more reading on the Imposter Syndrome, check out the gradPSYCH article, “Feel Like a Fraud?”