The Impostor Phenomenon and Performance

I pose with my award at the 2018 National Junior Science & Humanities Symposium.

I pose with my award at the 2018 National Junior Science & Humanities Symposium.

I pose with my award at the 2017 Alameda County Science & Engineering Fair.

I pose with my award at the 2017 Alameda County Science & Engineering Fair.

I stand in front of my poster at the 2017 Alameda County Science & Engineering Fair.

I stand in front of my poster at the 2017 Alameda County Science & Engineering Fair.

Summary

I worked to determine the relationship between the impostor phenomenon and performance. Working with the help of City of Fremont Human Relations Commissioner Dr. Sonia Khan and pioneering psychologist in the field Dr. Pauline Clance, I established a negative relationship between the impostor phenomenon and performance. Moreover, I developed a text that, after being read, appears to reverse this decrease in performance.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

There are many people I have to thank for everything they have done for me. First, thank you to my wonderfully accomplished, talented friends, who clearly suffer from the impostor phenomenon (IP), and were the reason I embarked on this project to begin with. Thank you to Ms. Ling-Ru Katy Kuei, who motivated me to turn my concerns into an actual project, sponsored my work in multiple competitions, and offered continuous, unflinching support throughout. Thank you to the teachers at my school, most notably Ms. Kuei, Mr. Yunor Peralta, and Dr. Matt Lazar, who used class time to help me expand my sample, and Principal Zack Larsen, who supported me and helped me contact teachers. Thank you to Fremont Human Relations Commissioner Dr. Sonia Khan, who judged my project at the Alameda County Science and Engineering Fair, took an interest in my study, and guided me toward the California State Science Fair and beyond. Thank you to a particularly critical California State Science Fair judge who grilled my study design, motivating me to strengthen my understanding of cognitive priming. Thank you to my instructors at Stanford Summer Session’s High School Summer College, Dr. Scott Hall and Mr. Chris Miller, who both offered their advice and criticism. Most of all, thank you to Dr. Pauline Clance, the pioneering psychologist who co-authored the first paper on the IP, and Dr. Suzann Lawry and Dr. Hamid Mirsalimi, former students of Dr. Clance’s who reached out with advice and guidance. Together, they became my research mentors, giving me feedback and encouragement in helping me complete this study. It has been an incredible journey working with such diverse but like-minded individuals who each offered their unique powers to achieve a common goal.