International Journal of Behavioral Sciences

International Journal of Behavioral Sciences

Prediction of Imposter Syndrome in Gifted Female Students based on Ego Development, Self-efficacy, and Self-awareness

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran. zahrasolgi1357@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5801-5449
Abstract
Introduction: Imposter Syndrome (IS) is loosely defined as doubting your abilities and feeling like a fraud. It disproportionately affects high-achieving people, who find it difficult to accept their accomplishments.  This research was conducted in order to predict the IS in gifted students based on ego development, self-efficacy, and self-awareness.
Method: The research was descriptive and correlational. All gifted students studying in middle schools in central Islamabad in the academic year 2020-2021 formed the statistical population of this research. For this purpose, 202 students were selected using the cluster sampling method and used the IS Questionnaire (Clans and Ames, 1978), the Ego Development Questionnaire (Markstrom et al., 1997), the Psychological Capital Questionnaire (Luthans et al., 2007), and the Spirituality Questionnaire (Donning and Parsian, 2009). The collected data were analyzed by SPSS version 26 and the significance level was considered 0.05.
Results: The results of Pearson's correlation coefficient showed that there was a negative and significant relationship between self-efficacy and spiritual-health scores with IS in female students at the level of 0.05. Moreover, the regression analysis with the simultaneous entry method showed that the predictor variables together explained 43% of the variance of the IS scores among female students.
Conclusion: The findings of the present study suggest that the psychological structures under investigation can predict and explain IS in female students. The aim of developing and assembling educational programs is to improve students' self-efficacy. Therefore, school officials, community health officials, and mental health officials are encouraged to improve students' self-efficacy.
Keywords

  1. Clevenger, L., Gifted Student Burnout. 2022. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2285&context=honors
  2. Villwock, J.A., et al., Impostor syndrome and burnout among American medical students: a pilot study. International journal of medical education, 2016. 7: 364. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27802178/
  3. Wang, K.T., M.S. Sheveleva, and T.M. Permyakova, Imposter syndrome among Russian students: The link between perfectionism and psychological distress. Personality and Individual Differences, 2019. 143: 1-6. https://publications.hse.ru/en/articles/255590118
  4. Canning, E.A., et al., Feeling like an imposter: The effect of perceived classroom competition on the daily psychological experiences of first-generation college students. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2020. 11(5): 647-657. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1948550619882032
  5. Yaffe, Y., Does self-esteem mediate the association between parenting styles and imposter feelings among female education students? Personality and Individual differences, 2020. 156: p. 109789. https://e-tarjome.com/storage/panel/fileuploads/2020-02-03/1580710588_E14275-e-tarjome.pdf
  6. Qureshi, M.A., et al., Imposter syndrome among Pakistani medical students. Annals of king edward medical university, 2017. 23(2). https://annalskemu.org/journal/index.php/annals/article/view/1647
  7. Collins, K.H., et al., Consequences of stereotype threat and imposter syndrome: The personal journey from stem-practitioner to stem-educator for four women of color. Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education, 2020. 19(4): p. 10. https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1071&context=taboo
  8. Parviz, K., et al., The relationship between ego strength and metacognition among male and female students. Education Strategies in Medical Sciences, 2016. 9(2): p. 118-126. https://edcbmj.ir/article-1-968-en.pdf
  9. EINY, S., et al., Effectiveness of mentalization based therapy and cognitive-analytical therapy on improved object relationship of people with borderline personality disorder: a comparison. 2018. https://journal.uma.ac.ir/article_1028_2fe6d8ba7988b71841844610850b8e29.pdf
  10. Stenius, J., et al., Predicting the working alliance over the course of long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy with the Rorschach Ego Impairment Index, self-reported defense style, and performance-based intelligence: An evaluation of three methodological approaches. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 2021. 38(1): 58. https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fpap0000318
  11. Leutner, S. and O. Piedfort-Marin, The concept of ego state: From historical background to future perspectives. European Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 2021. 5(4): 100184. https://doi.org/10.1037/pap0000318
  12. McNeal, S., Hypnotic ego-strengthening: Where we’ve been and the road ahead. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 2020. 62(4): 392-408. https://doi.org/10.1080/00029157.2019.1709151
  13. Schulze, A., Examining the Relationship Among Self-Efficacy, Fear of Failure, and Impostor Phenomenon at a HBCU. 2020, University of Louisiana at Monroe. https://search.proquest.com/openview/0f7ee438d709adefbe20710d65328034/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=51922&diss=y
  14. Terry, D., et al., Occupational self-efficacy and psychological capital amongst nursing students: a cross sectional study understanding the malleable attributes for success. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education, 2019. 10(1): 159-172. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34542477/
  15. Hernández Varas, E., F.J. Labrador Encinas, and M. Méndez Suárez, Psychological capital, work satisfaction and health self-perception as predictors of psychological wellbeing in military personnel. Psicothema, 2019. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31292042/
  16. Azila-Gbettor, E.M., C. Mensah, and M.K. Abiemo, Self-efficacy and academic programme satisfaction: mediating effect of meaningfulness of study. International Journal of Educational Management, 2022. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJEM-09-2021-0353/full/html?skipTracking=true
  17. Walker, C.A., Impostor Phenomenon, Academic Self-Efficacy, and Persistence Among African-American Female Undergraduate STEM Majors. 2018, Northeastern University. https://repository.library.northeastern.edu/files/neu:m044c7504/fulltext.pdf
  18. Kamijo, Y. and T. Miyamura, Spirituality and associated factors among cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Japan Journal of Nursing Science, 2020. 17(1):12276. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31613426/
  19. Jouriles, E.N., et al., Divine spiritual struggles and psychological adjustment among adolescents who have been sexually abused. Psychology of violence, 2020. 10(3): 334. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Divine-spiritual-struggles-and-psychological-among-Jouriles-Rancher/6ea7230235fa1739cad03f89441747bf20cfbdcd
  20. Clance, P.R. and S.A. Imes, The imposter phenomenon in high achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention. Psychotherapy: Theory, research & practice, 1978. 15(3): 241. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1979-26502-001
  21. Basak Nejad, S., et al., Study of simple and multiple relations of success fear, self-esteem, perfectionism and fear of syndrome negative evaluation with pretendism. Journal of educational sciences and psychology of Ahwaz Shahid Chamran University, 2005. 12(3): 87-147. https://www.sid.ir/paper/8805/fa
  22. Markstrom, C.A., et al., The psychosocial inventory of ego strengths: Development and validation of a new Eriksonian measure. Journal of youth and adolescence, 1997. 26(6): 705-732. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16635525/
  23. Mirshekari, H., Z. Mollahy, and T. Reza, The Investigation of the Relationship between Ego’s Strength, Self-Control and Self-Esteem among the Students of University of Shahed. Indian Journal of Fundamental and Applied Life Sciences, 2014. 4: 1303-1308.
  24. Luthans, F., et al., Positive psychological capital: Measurement and relationship with performance and satisfaction. Personnel psychology, 2007. 60(3): 541-572. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=leadershipfacpub
  25. Farokhi, E. and N. Sabzi, Happiness and perception of family communication pattern: the mediating role of psychological capital. 2015. https://jip.stb.iau.ir/article_510846_en.html
  26. Parsian, N. and T. Dunning, Developing and validating a questionnaire to measure spirituality: A psychometric process. Global journal of health science, 2009. 1(1): 2-11. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/80ee/f0444eb1808cc97593d86c398e7189f1ae26.pdf
  27. Alrayyes, S., et al., Burnout and imposter syndrome among Saudi young adults: The Strings in the Puppet Show of Psychological Morbidity. Saudi Medical Journal, 2020. 41(2): 189. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32020154/
  28. Schubert, N. and A. Bowker, Examining the impostor phenomenon in relation to self-esteem level and self-esteem instability. Current Psychology, 2019. 38(3): 749-755. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Examining-the-Impostor-Phenomenon-in-Relation-to-Schubert-Bowker/98d981d6c43ef3efb5757cba53967718876c9586
  29. Wu, W.-L. and Y.-C. Lee, How spiritual leadership boosts nurses’ work engagement: The mediating roles of calling and psychological capital. International journal of environmental research and public health, 2020. 17(17): 6364. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7503660/
  30. Fox, C., B.D. Webster, and W.C. Casper, Spirituality, psychological capital and employee performance: An empirical examination. Journal of Managerial Issues, 2018: 194-213. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Spirituality%2C-Psychological-Capital-and-Employee-An-Fox-Webster/602ddf48076742af8b93dddc7971a63ccef101f9
  31. Ambrose, B., K. Gopez, and S. Tran, Imposter Syndrome among undergraduate college students: The link between competitive culture and self-doubt. 2019.
  32. LaDonna, K.A., S. Ginsburg, and C. Watling, “Rising to the level of your incompetence”: what physicians’ self-assessment of their performance reveals about the imposter syndrome in medicine. Academic Medicine, 2018. 93(5): 763-768. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29116983/
  33. Magro, C., From hiding to sharing. A descriptive phenomenological study on the experience of being coached for impostor syndrome. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 2022(S16): 68-80. https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/file/1d7aad0a-dc12-452b-9f33-20dd8667db1f/1/IJEBCM_S16_07.pdf
  34. Daniels, D., et al., Advancing ego development in adulthood through study of the enneagram system of personality. Journal of adult development, 2018. 25(4): 229-241. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30416328/
  35. Meeks, L.M., et al., Wellness and work: mixed messages in residency training. Journal of general internal medicine, 2019. 34(7): 1352-1355. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30924087/