Gender, Graduate School Stage, and the Impostor Phenomenon

Authors

John-Scott B. Kelley, University of Central ArkansasFollow
Angela T. Barlow, University of South AlabamaFollow

Author Biography

John-Scott Kelley is a native Arkansan. He grew up in Walnut Ridge and earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Arkansas – Fayetteville in 2014. He gained clinical experience by working as a neuropsychological technician for three years before returning to the University of Arkansas to pursue a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling. He graduated, became a licensed associate counselor, and began seeing clients in 2019. He returned to graduate school at the University of Central Arkansas in 2020 to pursue a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology. During his time in the doctoral program, he has worked as a practicum student in a university counseling center, and he has worked as a counselor, neuropsychology technician, and practicum student in a neuropsychology clinic. He is scheduled to graduate in 2025, and he plans to become a neuropsychologist and start an integrated care clinic with his sister in Arkansas.

Abstract

The impostor phenomenon (IP) includes five central factors: (a) a sense of fraudulence or phoniness; (b) a fear of failure and discovery; (c) compensatory perfectionism (i.e., procrastination and/or over-preparation); (d) interpersonal anxiety; and (e) externalized success and/or discounted positive feedback. After the final stage, the process starts over with reinforced vigor, creating a self-reinforcing cycle in which success is associated with psychological suffering. IP was initially used to describe the reports of high-achieving women, but recent studies have shown that IP is experienced across genders. Additionally, while graduate school is an achievement-oriented environment with many characteristics that could promote IP, it has never been studied within graduate students specifically. The current investigation assessed graduate student endorsements of IP across genders (i.e., female and male) and graduate school stages (i.e., incoming and established students). Though the hypotheses were not supported, the results led to multiple areas of future study that could help explain the unexpected findings and promote graduate student well-being and success.

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