Thanks for sharing your really useful and interesting research. It sounds to me as though by labelling a complex set of feelings and thoughts with a simple label, we're almost always putting ourselves or others in a box and constraining our understanding both of the the problem and the solution. And even thinking of it as a problem at all might be limiting our choices.
I also suspect that for a lot of us in consumer societies, we're mostly overstimulated and too easily trapped into seeking external sources of comfort or security, when it might be better to be more interested in, and accepting of, our internal experience.
I couldn't agree more! We need to resist the rush to pathologise normal experiences, not least because of the damage that internalising the wrong messages can do. If you start to think of your self as suffering from impostor syndrome, then it's a short step to internalising the idea that you actually are an impostor. And I can't see how that does anyone any good.
Yes. I think there's a fine line between asserting our identify and sticking up for ourselves and our preferences... and falling into the trap of stereotyping ourselves. What Eric Berne called the wooden leg game.
Excellent dive into the research, thank you. I think also a lot of feelings of inadequacy stem from the natural state of knowing what's going on inside your head and not knowing what's going on inside other people's head. I wrote about it before (https://www.galpod.com/post/the-different-faces-of-impostor-syndrome) (sorry for the plug but it's relevant, honest). We have a general tendency to attribute others' behaviour to internal factors (e.g., my coworker is late because he's lazy, I'm late because the bus was late), so I wonder if we're just more likely to assume that a person who looks like they know what they're doing actually does.
That's a very good point about how we project on to others different attributions to the ones we give ourselves. There's a lot of evidence that we do that, and we do it without thinking. So yes, we absolutely assume other people are smarter, more well organised and better put together than we are, even though they aren't.
I am currently reading Derren Brown's book, Happy, and there's a section in it about not adding to first impressions. When something happens, we tend to take the information we've got about it and then add our own interpretations and projections on to the story. And that often leads us astray as our interpretations aren't rooted in reality. So one has to be vigilant not to build these constructs in our minds that leads us to then negatively compare ourselves to others.
Regardless of gender, as is the case with everything in life: Discipline is a choice. You have to push through the imposter fear. Ask any successful writer, male or female. You get up and you write. Have kids and a full-time job? Get up at 4am and write for 45 minutes, an hour. Feeling like an imposter is perfectly normal and okay. Just keep going.
Thanks for sharing your really useful and interesting research. It sounds to me as though by labelling a complex set of feelings and thoughts with a simple label, we're almost always putting ourselves or others in a box and constraining our understanding both of the the problem and the solution. And even thinking of it as a problem at all might be limiting our choices.
I also suspect that for a lot of us in consumer societies, we're mostly overstimulated and too easily trapped into seeking external sources of comfort or security, when it might be better to be more interested in, and accepting of, our internal experience.
I couldn't agree more! We need to resist the rush to pathologise normal experiences, not least because of the damage that internalising the wrong messages can do. If you start to think of your self as suffering from impostor syndrome, then it's a short step to internalising the idea that you actually are an impostor. And I can't see how that does anyone any good.
Yes. I think there's a fine line between asserting our identify and sticking up for ourselves and our preferences... and falling into the trap of stereotyping ourselves. What Eric Berne called the wooden leg game.
Excellent dive into the research, thank you. I think also a lot of feelings of inadequacy stem from the natural state of knowing what's going on inside your head and not knowing what's going on inside other people's head. I wrote about it before (https://www.galpod.com/post/the-different-faces-of-impostor-syndrome) (sorry for the plug but it's relevant, honest). We have a general tendency to attribute others' behaviour to internal factors (e.g., my coworker is late because he's lazy, I'm late because the bus was late), so I wonder if we're just more likely to assume that a person who looks like they know what they're doing actually does.
That's a very good point about how we project on to others different attributions to the ones we give ourselves. There's a lot of evidence that we do that, and we do it without thinking. So yes, we absolutely assume other people are smarter, more well organised and better put together than we are, even though they aren't.
I am currently reading Derren Brown's book, Happy, and there's a section in it about not adding to first impressions. When something happens, we tend to take the information we've got about it and then add our own interpretations and projections on to the story. And that often leads us astray as our interpretations aren't rooted in reality. So one has to be vigilant not to build these constructs in our minds that leads us to then negatively compare ourselves to others.
Regardless of gender, as is the case with everything in life: Discipline is a choice. You have to push through the imposter fear. Ask any successful writer, male or female. You get up and you write. Have kids and a full-time job? Get up at 4am and write for 45 minutes, an hour. Feeling like an imposter is perfectly normal and okay. Just keep going.
Michael Mohr
Sincere American Writing
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/