HSE experts learned how to measure the impostor syndrome

scientists have adapted a methodology that helps to understand how confident a person is in his abilities, competencies and achievements

Situation: Imposter syndrome is a fairly popular topic. It is often discussed among friends, colleagues, at sessions with psychologists and mentioned in the media. Many people, having achieved success in a particular field, doubt their qualifications and the justice of their merits. And here it is important to understand how prone a person is to the impostor syndrome, and whether it interferes with work and getting satisfaction from their work.

In practice: Very little attention has been paid to the phenomenon of the impostor in the Russian scientific literature. In addition, there has not yet been a proven Russian-language methodology to measure the severity of the impostor syndrome. This situation was corrected by scientists from the National Research University Higher School of Economics and RANEPA.

Now more

Scientists from the National Research University Higher School of Economics and the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration tested the Russian-language version of Paulina Klans’ Scale of the Imposter Phenomenon (Slance Imposter Phenomenon Scale). This instrument was selected for adaptation as one of the most robust and well-researched of all currently available methods for measuring impostor syndrome.

Almost 400 university students took part in the study. Scientists have received data that testify to the high reliability of the Scale. Now the technique can be used for scientific and applied purposes, for example, it can be used in the process of psychological counseling, in the field of HR and for self-diagnosis. An article based on the results of the study and the methodology itself were published in the Psychological Journal of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The work was carried out within the framework of the RFBR grant “Perfectionism and impostor syndrome as factors of psychological well-being in a professional environment.”

What are we talking about?

Imposter syndrome came to light in the scientific literature in the late 1980s. It was described by psychologist Paulina Klans as the result of systematic observations during psychotherapeutic sessions.

In her monograph in 1985, she formulated the main characteristics of the phenomenon, which include:

The authors of the study, Marina Sheveleva and Tatyana Permyakova from the National Research University Higher School of Economics, as well as Dmitry Kornienko from the RANEPA, in their article note that the impostor syndrome most often manifests itself in situations that are new for a person, when they take on a new role and at the beginning of a success story: “It develops in conditions when people try to change their behavior so that they are positively assessed in a new situation or group, in connection with which this phenomenon can become an obstacle to entering the environment and successfully adapting.

In the early work of Paulina Klans, it was shown that the impostor syndrome is characteristic of women in high positions or with high academic achievements. But then it turned out that it has a much wider distribution. “It is typical for racial and ethnic minorities, professional groups where success is not quantifiable, and also for those who are considered experts or specialists in society due to age or accumulated knowledge,” the scientists write.

Thus, from a research point of view, the impostor syndrome can be considered as a factor hindering achievements in a particular field of activity and leading to the experience of negative emotional states. “The impostor phenomenon has been shown to be negatively correlated with self-esteem and self-perception, positively correlated with anxiety and depression, fear of failure, and is a barrier to career development,” write the authors in the review part of the study.

Since the late 1980s, more than 1200 scientific papers on impostor syndrome have been published abroad. 80% of these works appeared in the last 20 years.

The Impostor Phenomenon Scale is a diagnostic tool that was developed by Paulina Klans to measure it. It has already been translated into Korean and German.

There are three other tools for measuring impostor syndrome:

• Harvey Imposter Phenomenon Scale,
• Colligian and Sternberg subjective deception scale,
• Leary impostor scale.

However, the Klans Impostor Phenomenon Scale, as the authors note, is the most researched and reliable psychometric tool to date. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to test its Russian version. The scientists contacted Paulina Klans and received permission to adapt the technique.

Impostor Syndrome Test

Impostor Syndrome Test

How did you study?

The study involved 370 1st-4th year students of Perm universities who evaluated the statements included in the study methodology on a Likert scale – from 1 – never, to 5 – very often.

In general, the Scale allows you to identify three factors of the impostor syndrome:

• deception (example: “Sometimes I fear that others will discover how much knowledge and abilities I really lack”),
• depreciation (example: “I often compare my abilities with the abilities of people around me and think that they may be smarter than me”),
• good luck (example: “At times I feel like I owe my success to some kind of luck”).

In order to study external validity, the Pantileeva and Stolin Self-Relationship Methodology, as well as the Big Five Portrait Questionnaire of Egorova and Parshikova, were used.

The self-relationship technique allows diagnosing three factors or modalities of self-relationship: self-respect, self-sympathy and self-abasement. This technique was used, as the authors note, since the description of the scales is meaningfully close to the characteristics of the impostor syndrome described by Klans.

The Big Five Portrait Inventory measures five major personality traits. These include: neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience.

In the course of the study, statistical data processing was carried out using the SPSS 20 program. Correlation, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were used.

What did you get?

The resulting Impostor Phenomenon Scale, consisting of 20 questions, showed high reliability scores. The authors note that increased values ​​on the Scale are associated with low general self-attitude – the more pronounced the impostor phenomenon, the more the person:

• focused on the motivation of social approval,
• has an external locus of control
• dissatisfied with their own abilities,
• has low subjective value,
• doubts his own qualities and his ability to earn respect from others,
• there is a rigidity of the self-concept and disbelief in the possibility of self-development, while there is dissatisfaction with oneself, leading to internal conflict and self-accusation.

The results cited by other studies, as noted by the authors, also show that high scores on the Impostor Phenomenon Scale are associated with low or negative self-esteem, low self-confidence. The study also revealed relationships with personality traits. High values ​​of the Impostor Phenomenon Scale are associated with introversion, low consciousness and self-control, negative attitude towards others and closeness to the new, with emotional instability. “Perhaps this reflects the component of external social evaluation in the impostor phenomenon, that is, the orientation that others are likely to negatively evaluate a person’s achievements,” the researchers note.

What does it do?

The impostor syndrome has received little attention in Russian scientific literature. The author of the study, Marina Sheveleva, explains this by the existing gap between scientific and practical psychology. “While abroad, psychologists-researchers are simultaneously engaged in consultative practice, in our country these areas are clearly separated and overlap little, which in itself is defined as one of the key problems of modern psychology. The concept of the “imposter phenomenon” is just a vivid example of the relationship between scientific and practical psychology,” she believes.

So far, there is no data that would allow Russia to be compared with other countries in terms of the prevalence of the impostor syndrome. Scientists consider this issue as one of the future prospects in research. Nevertheless, the problem, in their opinion, is very relevant in the domestic context.

“Currently, in our country, one can observe a number of factors with a high probability leading to the emergence of the impostor syndrome,” comments Marina Sheveleva. First, as the researcher explains, more and more women (namely, women show a high level of impostor syndrome) succeed in business and politics, while the trend towards gender stereotyping persists in society. Secondly, our country is a multinational state. Foreign studies have shown that impostor syndrome is higher among racial and ethnic minorities. Thirdly, the geographic mobility of young people has increased in connection with the introduction of the Unified State Examination, which provides an opportunity to get higher education in the capital and other large cities.

The resulting Impostor Phenomenon Scale, as scientists note, can be used for various purposes – in educational, managerial and consulting practice throughout the Russian-speaking world. It can be used in scientific research, in psychological counseling and for self-diagnosis.