MadamnX
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Imposter syndrome can be defined as a collection of feelings of inadequacy that persist even in face of information that indicates that the opposite is true. It is experienced internally as chronic self-doubt, and feelings of intellectual fraudulence.
It is basically feeling that you are not really a successful, competent, and smart student, that you are only imposing as such.
Some common feelings and thoughts that might characterize the imposter syndrome are: “I feel like a fake” “My classmates/professors etc. are going to find out I don’t really belong here,” “Admissions made a mistake”
· The imposter feelings can be divided into three sub categories:
Feeling like a fake: the belief that one does not deserve his or her success or professional position and that somehow other have been deceived into thinking otherwise. This goes together with a fear of being, “found out”, discovered or “unmasked”. People who feel this way would identify with statements such as: “I can give the impression that I am more competent than I really am.” “I am often afraid that others will discover how much knowledge I really lack”.
Attributing success to luck: Another aspect of the imposter syndrome is the tendency to attribute success to luck or to other external reasons and not to your own internal abilities. Someone with such feeling would refer to an achievement by saying, “I just got lucky this time” “it was a fluke” and with fear that they will not be able to succeed the next time.
Discounting Success: The third aspect is a tendency to downplay success and discount it. One with such feelings would discount an achievement by saying, “it is not a big deal,” “it was not important.” One example of this is discounting the fact that they made it here, which is really a big success. Or saying, “I did well because it is an easy class etc.” Having a hard time accepting compliments.
This is not an all or nothing syndrome. Most of you probably could identify with a few statements but not with others. Some people may identify with imposter feelings in some situations and not in others, or maybe you may not identify with these feelings but have friends who do.
· Who is likely to have the imposter syndrome?
The imposter syndrome is associated with highly achieving, highly successful people. This makes imposter feelings somewhat different from the concept of “low self-esteem” because there is a discrepancy between the actual achievement and the person’s feelings about the achievement that may not be present in low self-esteem. People in different professions such as teachers, people in the social sciences, people in academia, actresses and actors, may all have imposter feelings. It was originally associated with women but recent research indicated that men suffer in similar numbers.
"Attitudes, beliefs, direct or indirect messages that we received from our parents or from other significant people in our lives early on may have contributed to the development of imposter feelings". Certain family situations and dynamics tend to contribute to imposter feelings: when the success and career aspirations conflicts with the family expectations of the gender, race, religion, or age of the person, families who impose unrealistic standards, families who are very critical, and families who are ridden with conflict and anger.
Some researchers identify two main types of family dynamics that can contribute to imposter feelings, although there may be others.
Family Labels: Different children in a family may be identified or labeled differently. For example, some families have one “intelligent” child and one “sensitive” child. While growing up, many times families will not change their perception of each child, no matter what that child does. Therefore, the sensitive child, even if she gets better grades or more awards may not be recognized for her intelligence. This can lead to doubting her intelligence and believing the family is correct even with evidence, which contradicts these labels.
Family messages of superiority: Other families can give their child full support to the point where the family and girl believe that she is superior or perfect. As the girl grows up and encounters challenging tasks, she may begin to doubt her parent’s perceptions and may also need to hide her difficulties in order not to disturb the family image of her. As a result of these normal difficulties, this girl may come to believe that she is only average and even below average.
· The connection between imposter feelings and success:
Imposter feelings relate to an inability to internalize past and current success. Being successful does not alter how you feel about yourself and does not alleviate feelings of inadequacy.
Fear of Success: Also, people with imposter feelings can have a tendency to over internalize failure. People who feel like imposters may fear success and the responsibility and visibility that come with it. Since being more successful will increase the tension between the inner feelings and the outside perceptions.
Pressure not to fail: There can be a huge amount of pressure currently not to fail to avoid being “found out.” This leads to not being able to enjoy/internalize success.
Interestingly enough internalized feelings are triggered in bdsm. The dominants assocation to the submissive is thus equivalent to ones role model or authoritive figure from childhood. The scenario triggers the conditioned response..feelings that are not our own {the imposter syndrome} but feelings that has been internalized from past experiences {as with successes} as a child.
A good dominant will recognize the submissive's emotional response and it's canotations and find ways to intergrate a healthy emotional response to stimuli whether verbal or physical.
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