The impostor syndrome: what it is and how to get rid of it

- What to do with stress? She asked.
- What do you mean by stress?
- Well ... It seems to me that I can not fit that I will not be smart enough. And because of this, I feel stress all the time. Do you understand?

The girl with whom I spoke, became the first in her family, embarked on the path of obtaining a doctoral degree. She received excellent marks in computer science at the institute. She was accepted into an elite university, where she learns from a key figure in the field of human-computer interaction (human-computer interaction, HCI). In all respects, it does an excellent job. But her gnawing doubts. Not about the institute, the curator, the theme - she’s burning with passion for them. She has doubts about her and whether she is worthy of studying under this program.

I talk like this too often. People at all steps of a career take part in them, sometimes even my colleagues. In them, people express fears that they are not in their place, that they are pretenders, who are “not smart enough” or “not good enough”, or “not comprehensive enough” and “not deep enough” know their subject. The fear is that their inferiority will be revealed, expelled, fired - and the fear of revealing their unworthiness sometimes covers them with their heads.

More than forty years ago it turned out that such sensations are quite often found in women who have reached certain heights. Clinical psychologists Paulina Clans and Suzanne Ames in the late 1970s called it " impostor syndrome". Subsequent studies have shown that the impostor syndrome is quite real and very common, and its impact is certainly negative. The impostor syndrome is associated with processing, an excessive desire to please others, with a desperate need to constantly achieve more. No wonder, there is a correlation - anxiety, stress, depression, burnout, a debilitating sensation of exhaustion - and such symptoms may cause a talented person to give up promising Riera.

And although the initial work that led to the name of this syndrome concentrated on women who felt like “impostors” and believed that they were not there, as well as most of the works published subsequently were related to women - men also do not have immunity to impostor syndrome. I asked my male colleagues if they had experienced such a syndrome, and received a firm “yes” in response. As part of the investigation of this topic for writing this column, I read an article in which it was suggested that even Albert Einstein sometimes felt that way.

In the book "The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women: Why Capable People Suffer from Impostor Syndrome and How to Thrive in Spite of It" [The Secret Thoughts of the Successful Women], Valerie Young examines the impostor syndrome and adds details to it, describing various types of impostors and their behavior:

• Expert. Manifested in the frightened denial of his belonging to the experts. Associated with the constant feeling of how much more you need to know and do. Deep fear of finding out that a person does not know everything in his field. May lead to the feeling that a person does not deserve his workplace.
• Perfectionist. Perfectionism underlies the feeling that a person could (and should) do better. No matter how well a task is accomplished, he does not accept compliments and does not celebrate achievements. Sometimes success is not even noticed, so it is not surprising that self-confidence is not developed.
• Superman. Some people do not stop working, and take on all the tasks that they can. Young believes that such workaholism is an expression of the need for external approval, and it can be overcome only by formulating our own, internal measure of personal success.
• Natural genius. Judgment of human dignity based on natural abilities, and not achieved as a result of labor. The tendency to ridiculously high expectations is associated with and amplified by the expectation that a person can do something right the first time — an ideal recipe for creating feelings of inadequacy and failure, especially in difficult areas.
• An ardent individualist. It requires performing all tasks alone, practically not at all looking for help. Projects are evaluated in terms of their requirements, personal needs are sacrificed for the sake of project requirements.

I am sure that we will recognize some of these tendencies to everyone, and they are obviously interconnected. Also, a person may well feel anxiety of one type today, and another - tomorrow.

It seems to me that creative, trying to solve complex problems people who do not forget about the picture as a whole, who are fascinated by their theme, are most susceptible to suffering from the impostor syndrome. It makes sense - if you constantly strive for creative expression that violates the prejudices associated with your field of activity, for something profound and innovative, you will probably concentrate on what you do not know in order to plan your way of teaching this topic. . Those who constantly set themselves difficult tasks and face difficult problems will inevitably experience uncertainty. These are characteristics of the most creative and inventive minds. But constant introspection is a hole through which confidence flows away, creating fertile ground for rework and negative stress.Yerkes-Dodson law :

The Yerkes-Dodson Act is an empirical link between motivation and results, originally described by psychologists Robert Yerks and John Dodson in 1908. The law states that the results of work are improved under the influence of physical and mental motivation, but only to a certain limit.

Therefore, when stress turns out to be just the right intensity, people actively grow above themselves, overcome borders, become motivated to move forward, learn and solve problems. This is a positive stress. With increasing stress, we meet the point of "revenue reduction." At too high levels of stress, a person loses strength. It is likely that the impostor syndrome grows out of such heightened stress and anxiety, and introspection concentrates on the fear of failure, further intensifies anxiety and has the potential to lead to self-fulfilling prophecy .

But in order not to place too much responsibility on the individual and his aspirations, it is important to note that the feeling of an unsafe or unreliable professional position is not just a personal attribute or inclination. It is usually created and maintained by structural predispositions and real injustices in the social and working environment of the individual. There is ample evidence of how the environment triggers, nourishes and exacerbates the impostor syndrome. The feeling that a person has been deceived in his professional place may arise due to the fact that he does not feel himself in his place by other parameters - if he belongs to any minority group not prevailing in a given culture, it already does his someone interfering in the affairs of others. If you do not see that you and your values ​​are important to your environment, you may already have the feeling that you are hiding your difference from others. And at the same time, you are wasting energy searching for confirmation and avoiding failures.

Research suggests that the culture of an organization or institution seriously affects whether people feel in their place and are willing to take risks. The sense of belonging to a group and a social context can be decisive in how a person evaluates and perceives success and failure, whether he feels the need to hide and defend himself from “wrong steps” or failures when performing tasks. Lack of social affiliation can degrade emotional support, allowing a person to realistically assess failures and cope with them, whether they are real or only imaginary. Cultural programming is also an objective reality. Showing off their achievements in many cultures is considered indecent; as a person who moved from Britain to the USA, I can witness this cultural shift,

Perhaps that is why women are more likely to feel like an impostor - usually they do not feel such support and gain on themselves, they do not receive confirmation the way men do.

I think that the impostor syndrome and the corresponding compensatory behavior in the future will become even more common. The rate of reduction in the number of specialists in computer science is high, especially among women and most creative students trying to work in interdisciplinary fields. The current career situation also hints to creative people that they need to actively control their careers, and that stable work with a commitment to the organization and long-term plans is becoming increasingly rare. Careers increasingly require introspection and reflection on a development strategy; there are fewer rectilinear paths to long and satisfying human work. This means that an extraordinary emotional force is required in order to build a career, and at the same time avoid traps such as burnout or “impostor syndrome”.

As HCI and a user experience manager with a team of creative and vibrant individuals, I’m looking for people who are ready to challenge foundations, put creative ideas and critics to the discussion, not paralyzed by the pursuit of make-up or fear of objection to my opinion training. The feeling of inadequacy and lack of self-confidence leads a person away from arguments and creativity, and leads to an unproductive desire to make people enjoyable. We must evaluate ourselves and others, and see if we have an impostor syndrome, and if we start to behave in such a way as to provoke its development in other people. If this happens, there are several techniques that will help to cope with this.

And going back to the girl whose questions inspired me to think about this important topic, I think you will guess what I said to her:

“Oh, yes, of course, I am very familiar with this feeling. I am actively working on turning it from self-denial into a task that needs to be solved. ”

What else to read about the impostor syndrome

1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome
2. Yerkes, RM and Dodson, JD. Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology 18 (1908), 459–482; DOI: 10.1002 / cne.920180503
3. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerkes%E2%80%93Dodson_law
4. Feldman, AL and McCullough, M. Fighting impostor syndrome (abstract only). Proc. of the 45th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. ACM, New York, USA, 2014, 728–728. DOI: dx.doi.org/10.1145/2538862.2544236
5. www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAw6xWd_Hec

How to cope with the impostor syndrome

Treat yourself well

• Put yourself and your well-being in priority; you are more than what you do as part of training, teamwork, or organization.
• Recognize and suppress the inner monologue, mumbling about your failures and imperfect work.
• Do not arrange unhealthy competitions with yourself.
• Laugh at yourself with compassion.
• Allow yourself to boast about your success, and do not take seriously those who tease you because of this.

Create a support group for yourself, look for positive teachers and mentors

• Talk about your concerns and take feedback seriously, especially positive ones.

Manage your work attitude

• Remember the reasons why you do your work. If you find out that the reason is that someone else told you to do this, and you really are not interested - change your field of activity. Allow yourself to consider the option that you are just not very interested in the topic that you once adored. Some of the most successful people have achieved success in several areas.
• Set realistic goals and listen to the opinions of others about their reachability.

Understand natural cycles of knowledge and expert judgment.

• Be aware that knowledge changes and moves. Tomorrow you will know more about some topic, and forget something that you already knew. Forgive yourself for changing. If you haven't practiced for a while, it may not be so good for you.
• Allow yourself to be a newbie when you take on a new topic. Force yourself to ask for help, and if you do not receive encouragement from the first person you asked, move on and ask someone else until you find a person who loves this topic, loves to learn and encourage others to learn. The sharpest minds and the deepest experts enjoy more than others sharing their knowledge and inviting other people to share this area with them. Those who refuse to help you may themselves suffer from the impostor syndrome.

Understand the importance of culture

• Think about what your culture is programming. Do you really feel like an impostor, or are you afraid to admit that you are doing well with your tasks so that you are not accused of arrogance? Look for personal cultural differences related to boasting, self-promotion, competitiveness and contributions, including taking responsibility for honestly evaluating your own cultural or personal prejudices.
• Do not encourage unhealthy competition in a team, no matter you are a manager or one of your colleagues.
• Bring in the world of work game elements.
• In 95% of cases, you are part of a larger social system, and you do not need to do everything yourself. Also you are not responsible for everything alone. Learn to recognize the properties of a toxic environment, situations and organizations, and if you cannot change the situation, leave it.