{"id":150006,"date":"2022-05-17T06:53:14","date_gmt":"2022-05-17T10:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/?p=150006"},"modified":"2022-05-17T11:25:29","modified_gmt":"2022-05-17T15:25:29","slug":"what-is-imposter-syndrome-and-how-can-you-combat-it-elizabeth-cox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/archives\/150006","title":{"rendered":"What is imposter syndrome and how can you combat it? – Elizabeth Cox"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What is imposter syndrome and how can you combat it? - Elizabeth Cox\" width=\"660\" height=\"371\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZQUxL4Jm1Lo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nEven after writing eleven books\r\nand winning several prestigious awards, Maya Angelou couldn\u2019t escape\r\nthe nagging doubt that she hadn\u2019t really earned\r\nher accomplishments. Albert Einstein experienced\r\nsomething similar: he described himself\r\nas an \u201cinvoluntary swindler\u201d whose work didn\u2019t deserve\r\nas much attention as it had received. Accomplishments at the level\r\nof Angelou\u2019s or Einstein\u2019s are rare, but their feeling of fraudulence\r\nis extremely common. Why can\u2019t so many of us shake feelings that we haven\u2019t earned\r\nour accomplishments, or that our ideas and skills\r\naren\u2019t worthy of others\u2019 attention? Psychologist Pauline Rose Clance\r\nwas the first to study this unwarranted sense of insecurity.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nIn her work as a therapist, she noticed many of her undergraduate\r\npatients shared a concern: though they had high grades, they didn\u2019t believe they deserved\r\ntheir spots at the university. Some even believed their acceptance\r\nhad been an admissions error. While Clance knew these fears\r\nwere unfounded, she could also remember feeling\r\nthe exact same way in graduate school. She and her patients experienced\r\nsomething that goes by a number of names– imposter phenomenon, imposter experience, and imposter syndrome. Together with colleague Suzanne Imes, Clance first studied impostorism\r\nin female college students and faculty. Their work established pervasive\r\nfeelings of fraudulence in this group. Since that first study, the same thing has been established\r\nacross gender, race, age, and a huge range of occupations, though it may be more prevalent\r\nand disproportionately affect the experiences of underrepresented\r\nor disadvantaged groups. To call it a syndrome\r\nis to downplay how universal it is. It’s not a disease or an abnormality, and it isn\u2019t necessarily\r\ntied to depression, anxiety, or self-esteem.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nWhere do these feelings\r\nof fraudulence come from? People who are highly skilled\r\nor accomplished tend to think others are just as skilled. This can spiral into feeling\r\nthat they don\u2019t deserve accolades and opportunities over other people. And as Angelou and Einstein experienced, there\u2019s often no threshold\r\nof accomplishment that puts these feelings to rest. Feelings of impostorism aren\u2019t restricted\r\nto highly skilled individuals, either. Everyone is susceptible to a phenomenon\r\nknown as pluralistic ignorance, where we each doubt ourselves privately but believe we\u2019re alone\r\nin thinking that way because no one else voices their doubts. Since it\u2019s tough to really know\r\nhow hard our peers work, how difficult they find certain tasks, or how much they doubt themselves, there\u2019s no easy way to dismiss feelings\r\nthat we\u2019re less capable than the people around us. Intense feelings of impostorism can prevent people\r\nfrom sharing their great ideas or applying for jobs\r\nand programs where they\u2019d excel. At least so far, the most surefire way\r\nto combat imposter syndrome is to talk about it.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.pexels.com\/photos\/568021\/pexels-photo-568021.jpeg?auto=compress&amp;cs=tinysrgb&amp;h=650&amp;w=940\" \/>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nMany people suffering\r\nfrom imposter syndrome are afraid that if they ask\r\nabout their performance, their fears will be confirmed. And even when\r\nthey receive positive feedback, it often fails to ease\r\nfeelings of fraudulence. But on the other hand, hearing that an advisor or mentor has\r\nexperienced feelings of impostorism can help relieve those feelings. The same goes for peers. Even simply finding out there\u2019s a term\r\nfor these feelings can be an incredible relief. Once you\u2019re aware of the phenomenon, you can combat your own imposter syndrome by collecting\r\nand revisiting positive feedback. One scientist who kept blaming herself\r\nfor problems in her lab started to document the causes\r\nevery time something went wrong. Eventually, she realized most\r\nof the problems came from equipment failure and came to recognize her own competence. We may never be able\r\nto banish these feelings entirely, but we can have open conversations\r\nabout academic or professional challenges.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nWith increasing awareness\r\nof how common these experiences are, perhaps we can feel freer, to be frank\r\nabout our feelings and build confidence\r\nin some simple truths: you have talent, you are capable, and you belong…\r\n\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZQUxL4Jm1Lo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">As found on YouTube<\/a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.TrainPetDog.com\/h\/Splivedge\/\">Easy Dog Obedience &amp; Puppy Training If your Dog or Puppy is driving you crazy with its excessive barking, whining or chewing, or if your dog is too aggressive and bites or growls at your visitors, you need an immediate remedy. Subscribe to The FREE Dog Training Course to learn how you can easily turn your unruly and disobedient Dog into a loving, friendly companion.<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Even after writing eleven books and winning several prestigious awards, Maya Angelou couldn\u2019t escape the nagging doubt that she hadn\u2019t really earned her accomplishments. Albert Einstein experienced something similar: he described himself as an \u201cinvoluntary swindler\u201d whose work didn\u2019t deserve as much attention as it had received. Accomplishments at the level of Angelou\u2019s or &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/archives\/150006\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">What is imposter syndrome and how can you combat it? – Elizabeth Cox<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[59738,59739,35366,59585,35057,43583,59736,702,37808,2840,59733,34236,25037,35056],"class_list":["post-150006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-getting-help","tag-accomplishments","tag-combat","tag-confidence","tag-doubt","tag-elizabeth-cox","tag-help-2","tag-imposter-syndrome","tag-psychology","tag-sharon-colman","tag-ted","tag-ted-ed-2","tag-ted-education","tag-ted-ed","tag-teded"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150006"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150017,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150006\/revisions\/150017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}