High achievers doubt their accomplishments and fear being exposed as frauds.
Clance and Imes's 1978 study of high-achieving women. Not a clinical diagnosis, and the finding that complicates it is that people with the pattern often are competent, so reassurance about competence does not resolve it.
In practice
- A newly promoted director prepares three times as long as required for a meeting they are entirely qualified for.
- A researcher with two publications assumes everyone at the conference has read more than they have, and half the room is doing the same.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Psychology & Behavior
- Essay
- A century and a half of measuring the mind