The imposter phenomenon among undergraduate students in science

Abstract

The imposter phenomenon (IP) was formally studied in 1978 by two Georgia State University professors, Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes who coined the term as well which, as the term suggests, describes the experience of feeling like an imposter. It brings a sense of not belonging somewhere which isn’t uncommon for people to experience but Clance and Imes instituted the term and studied it objectively over the course of their study. They described the term as “an internal experience of intellectual phoniness” (Clance & Imes, 1978). The phenomenon happens when a person who is conventionally successful still believes paradoxically that they are incompetent and their success is an outcome of their environment and luck rather than their own ability (Chrisman, 1995). Clance and Imes first identified the phenomenon in high achieving women and based their initial studies after Clance noticed this experience among her undergraduate patients during her work as a therapist. In further studies, they concluded that the phenomenon is not restricted to any social group and is experienced homogenously throughout different genders, ages, race and occupation. The study tries to identify what these triggers could be that lead to IP in the students and what makes the difference in the way the overcome this phenomenon if they do.