What is impostor syndrome?
Abstract
People are described as suffering from impostor syndrome when they feel that their external markers of success are unwarranted, and fear being revealed as a fraud. Impostor syndrome is commonly framed as a troubling individual pathology, to be overcome through self-help strategies or therapy. But in many situations an individual’s impostor attitudes can be epistemically justified, even if they are factually mistaken: hostile social environments can create epistemic obstacles to self-knowledge. The concept of impostor syndrome prevalent in popular culture needs greater critical scrutiny, as does its source, the concept of impostor phenomenon which features in psychological research.
Citation
Hawley , K J 2019 , ' What is impostor syndrome? ' , Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume , vol. 93 , no. 1 , pp. 203–226 . https://doi.org/10.1093/arisup/akz003
Publication
Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume
Status
Non peer reviewed
ISSN
0309-7013Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2019 The Aristotelian Society. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created accepted version manuscript following peer review and as such may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1093/arisup/akz003
Collections
Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.