2 Facing Your Fears
Learning Outcomes
- Identify fears that may interfere with learning.
- Discover ways to develop more positive feelings toward learning.
The Impact of Fear on Learning
As discussed in the previous chapter, college is a time of change. With any change comes some degree of fear. For example, students may fear making mistakes, failing, asking questions, taking tests, or writing an essay. Although a small amount of fear won’t hold you back, too much fear — an intense fear of making a mistake, of what others will think of you, or of a challenging assignment, for instance — can paralyze your mind. Fear may also lead you to feel negatively about your experience in a course or about college more generally. It is important to be honest about your fears and, if they are hindering your progress, to identify ways to reduce their impact on your learning.
Complete the following activity to reflect on your your feelings about learning, including your fears. You can complete this activity for any course that causes anxiety or fear.
Activity 1: Reflect on Your Fears
- How do you feel about taking this course? Spend 3 to 5 minutes recording your feelings and the reasons for them.
- How do want to feel about taking this course? Is this response the same as your response to question 1?
- If your responses to (1) and (2) are different, brainstorm ideas about how to change your feelings to more positive ones. What would help you to make that change?
Imposter Syndrome
The article below by Hugh Kearns focuses on a specific fear that is common in college and the workplace, a fear of not being good enough. This fear comes from imposter syndrome. According to Kearns, people experience imposter syndrome when they “…are seen as successful by outside external measures but internally they feel themselves to be frauds, undeserving of their success and in danger at any moment of being exposed” (par. 3). When students experience imposter syndrome, they may believe they are unqualified to be in college. This leads to feelings of self-doubt and the fear that others will find out.
After reading the article, complete the reflection activity.
Feel like a fraud? You might have imposter syndrome
Hugh Kearns, University of Manchester
November 26, 2013
1 To many people, the actress Emma Watson, who plays Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, has it all. Talent, beauty, brains, and major acting roles at a young age. Yet Emma – like many people, be they in the world of acting, academia, health or sport – has admitted to feeling like a fraud despite her success.
2 In an interview with Rookie magazine, Watson said: “It’s almost like the better I do, the more my feeling of inadequacy actually increases, because I’m just going, ‘Any moment, someone’s going to find out I’m a total fraud, and that I don’t deserve any of what I’ve achieved’.”
3 This is an example of an interesting phenomenon called imposter syndrome – where people are seen as successful by outside external measures but internally they feel themselves to be frauds, undeserving of their success and in danger at any moment of being exposed.
4 Have you ever had the feeling that you’re in over your head? That you’ve had many successes but somehow you feel you don’t deserve them? There’s been some mistake. You were just lucky that time, the right questions came up in the exam or the interview. And despite all evidence to the contrary, that nagging feeling persists that, at any moment, someone will tap you on the shoulder and say: “You shouldn’t be here.”
5 Most of us have these feelings from time to time. They are called imposter feelings: feeling that you have misrepresented yourself despite all objective evidence to the contrary. A 1985 article in Time suggested that up to 70% of people will have imposter feelings at some time. It’s normal, and usually, with a bit of perspective and time, people let them pass.
‘Real’ imposters
6 However, for some people the imposter feelings don’t pass and an entire syndrome develops where the person believes they truly are an imposter. They go on to develop behaviours and thinking patterns based on this belief.
7 The phenomenon was originally described in 1978 by Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes, two researchers at Georgia State University in the US, based on their work with groups of high achieving women.
8 Much of the early literature suggested it applied mainly to women but since then, there have been studies showing that many men are also affected. One study suggested that while women worked and competed harder to prove themselves when anxiety was high, men tended to avoid situations where weaknesses could be exposed.
9 And the imposter syndrome is most obvious in situations where people are measured or evaluated in some way. So it is very common in education systems where people are regularly tested, graded and often ranked. It’s also common in competitive sport, or when you stand up to give a presentation, when you apply for a new job and in many creative fields. At these moments you start to worry that everybody will find out your little secret.
It’s a secret
10 One of the characteristics of the imposter syndrome is that you can never admit it. Because, of course, if you put your hand up and say “I feel like a fraud”, then there’s the possibility that someone will say “ah yes, we were wondering about that, could you please leave now.” So it’s safer to say nothing. But the doubts remain. Even if others are suffering too.
11 A second characteristic is that the imposter syndrome is impervious to evidence. The person has objective evidence that they are not a fraud. They have passed exams, have certificates, achieved sales targets, made a good presentation. Despite this evidence, the feeling lingers. And people play tricky mind games to discount or ignore the evidence. It was just luck, it was easy, someone helped. The next time will be harder. I fooled them – they just haven’t found me out yet.
12 For some people, the more successful they become, the worse the imposter syndrome is. After all, there’s more to be exposed now. All that happens is that expectations are raised even higher.
Look at it objectively
13 So what can you do? Well, you need to force yourself to look at the evidence objectively. One of the great contributions of psychology is to help people realise that feelings are not facts. You can feel like an imposter but that doesn’t make you one. Is it likely that you have fooled everyone? Did you tell lies at the interview? Was it just luck or did you actually work hard on that report?
14 There’s no simple answer to treating the syndrome but looking at the evidence using CBT and self-awareness can help, as can mindfulness. Learn not to fear success and enjoy it, even if this is easier said than done. Finding a way to channel pressure. This may not rid you of imposter syndrome but it will certainly help you to manage it.
Hugh Kearns, Academic Researcher, University of Manchester
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Activity 2: Reflect about Experiences with Imposter Syndrome
Kearns describes imposter syndrome in the article. Reflect on your experiences, and respond to the questions. Then, share your thoughts and experiences with a peer.
- Reflect on your past experiences in school and outside of school. When have you experienced imposter syndrome? How did you handle it?
- As you think about your college courses, are there subjects or courses that might cause you to experience fears associated with imposter syndrome? How could you manage imposter syndrome if you encounter it in college?