Tag Archives: imposter phenomenon

Everyone should be an imposter..?

Inspiration, My Project, , ,

I was scrolling through LinkedIn on Monday and came across this video by Steven Bartlett, a well known young entrepreneur who appears on the TV show Dragon’s Den. At this point I’m pretty much done with my project, I’m just writing up my report. But I wanted to share my thoughts about this video because I think it’s important and adds something to my research.

My response to the video on Linkedin

The phrase comfort zone was coined in 1991 by a Judith Bardwick, a management thinker in a book called Danger in the Comfort Zone.

“The comfort zone is a behavioral state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviors to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk.”

Going by this definition of the comfort zone, it is reasonable to infer that being out of your comfort zone induces anxiety. However anxiety and imposter syndrome don’t necessarily go hand in hand. For example, a person might be trying horse riding for the first time. Something that they have never done before and is very out of their comfort zone. They might be very anxious about it – what if they fall off and break their neck? What if the horse isn’t strong enough to carry them?

But do they feel like an imposter in this situation? I doubt it.

Yerkes and Dodson conducted an experiment in 1907, establishing a link between anxiety and performance. The main idea of their study is that nervous systems have a perfect zone of arousal. Too little and you’re in your comfort zone, and you begin to get bored. But too much, and you panic. This panic goes on to stall your progress and decreases your performance. (See diagram below)

Going back to the original video that inspired this post, I don’t think we should all feel like imposters. For some people, feeling like an imposter drives them to work harder and to succeed no matter what. For other, feeling like an imposter makes them freeze and sees productivity plummet. In my opinion, it is slightly unfair to tell people how they should feel. Especially if you have a huge platform like Steven Bartlett does. There will be people who don’t feel like an imposter wondering if there’s something wrong with them. I don’t mean to imply that he had any bad intentions with this video, but I think that he could have phrased it a lot better. It is important for people to have role models and I imagine Steven is this for a lot of people. And his words have a lot of weight for people who look up to him.

https://positivepsychology.com/comfort-zone/

https://www.simplypsychology.org/what-is-the-yerkes-dodson-law.html

Imposter Syndrome – Robbin Chapman PhD

Inspiration, My Project, , , , ,

Robbin Chapman, PhD who is the Associate Dean for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging in the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at the Harvard Kennedy school, published a presentation about imposter syndrome. Whilst I would love to share every page of it here, I’ve screenshotted the slides that resonated the most with me and that I think are the most relevant to my research.

(Complete side note, I really like the name of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging. It somehow sounds more friendly and welcoming than Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.)

Almost all of these describe the environment at arts based education institutions. And other places too, of course. From conversations I’ve had, art schools are some of the most competitive and exclusive places that people can choose to study. I have also heard that whilst there might not be ‘systems of oppression’, the environment itself can feel oppressive.

These might all be amazing and helpful tips, but I think they are easier said than done. I also think that normalising self doubt is a scale – there is a certain level of self doubt that isn’t normal, and can prevent people from functioning to the best of their abilities in an education environment and in the workplace.

I would add ‘create’ to this list for the group of students I am focusing on for my project. They are all creative students and making art is a valid way of expressing how you feel, or just a way to release any pent up frustration, anger or disappointment.

This self assessment tool was thought up by one of the women who first coined the term ‘imposter phenomenon’. I like the idea of self assessment but I do think it would be easy to cheat, and downplay how you are feeling. Sometimes when people fill in things like this, they still give the answers that they are expected to give, even if they are not showing the results to anyone. However, if this chart was filled in with 100% honesty, I can see it being a very helpful tool in the realisation of how much or how little you are experiencing imposter phenomenon.

Something about this that I find quite odd however, is that the self assessment tool at the end of the presentation has had its name changed. Originally it was called the Imposter Test or the IP (meaning imposter phenomenon) by Pauline Rose Clance when she wrote it – as seen here on her website. https://paulineroseclance.com/pdf/IPTestandscoring.pdf
I think this is a great presentation and very helpful for students in higher education, but I do have to question why it was necessary to change the name of this self assessment tool. Was it just to create a more cohesive presentation? Or was it because imposter syndrome is the more commonly accepted name for this feeling?
When I first saw this presentation about imposter phenomenon, I thought that maybe it is something that arts based universities should display on their websites, or around campus. But I am unconvinced about how many people would pay attention. I know that personally I ignore most posters that I see on the walls at CSM, simply because I don’t have the time to stand and read a long poster. (I’d also probably be in the way, based on where they are usually hung)

https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/hks-communications-program/files/pp_robbin_chapman_041119_impostor_syndrome.pdf