Nov 24, 2021
(Bonus) Impostor syndrome (also known as impostor phenomenon,
impostorism, fraud
syndrome or the impostor experience) is a psychological pattern in
which an
individual doubts their skills, talents, or accomplishments and has
a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a "fraud".
Despite external evidence of their competence, those experiencing
this phenomenon remain convinced that they are frauds and do not
deserve all they have achieved. Individuals with impostorism
incorrectly attribute their success to luck or the Matthew effect,
for example, or they incorrectly interpret it as a result of
deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent than they
perceive themselves to be. Impostor syndrome also occurs in normal
human-to-human relationships. Based on this syndrome, continuing
doubts about people and individual defense mechanisms are
considered difficult to achieve healthy relationships. While early
research focused on the prevalence among high-achieving women,
impostor syndrome has been recognized to affect both men and women
equally.