High Standards, Higher Doubts: The Hidden Cost of Perfectionism on Impostor Feelings in Graduate Students

Abstract

Over 40 years ago, Clance and Imes (1978) introduced the concept of the impostor phenomenon to describe high-achieving individuals who, despite evident success, experience persistent self-doubt and fear of being exposed as intellectual frauds. This doctoral thesis expanded on that foundational work by examining how perfectionism and its signature cognitive and socio-behavioural expressions shape the experience of impostor feelings among graduate students. Across four studies organized into two distinct research axes, this doctoral research program used meta-analytic, cross-sectional, and short-longitudinal designs to clarify the dispositional and contextual mechanisms contributing to the experience of impostor feelings in academic settings.

Study 1 (k=20) provided a meta-analytic synthesis of the associations between perfectionism and impostor feelings. The findings confirmed that perfectionistic concerns are strongly associated with impostor feelings, while perfectionistic standards showed weaker and more inconsistent associations. This distinction aligns with the Model of Excellencism and Perfectionism (MEP), reinforcing the notion that it is not solely the pursuit of high personal standards that is problematic, but how these standards are experienced and expressed. The results from Study 1 helped identify conceptual gaps in the literature and provided the empirical foundation for the subsequent studies.

Study 2 (N=372) and Study 3 (N=388) used independent samples of graduate students to examine whether the distinction between perfectionistic standards and excellencism is differentially associated with the experience of impostor feelings. These studies also explored the moderating role of perceived scientific productivity and exposure to feedback in the context of the peer-reviewed process. The findings revealed that perfectionistic standards, and not excellencism, positively predicted the experience of impostor feelings, particularly at lower levels of productivity or when exposed to negative feedback. These findings provided empirical validation for the first research axis by demonstrating the importance of distinguishing between high personal standards and perfectionistic standards and their interactions with academic context.

Study 4 (N=388) used a short-longitudinal design with two time points to examine how perfectionistic standards are indirectly associated with the experience of impostor feelings through their associations with perfectionistic concerns and self-presentation. The findings supported the theorized indirect relationship between perfectionistic standards and impostor feelings and revealed a mutually reinforcing cycle, in which the experience of impostor feelings led to an increase in perfectionistic concerns and self-presentation, which in turn predicted further impostor feelings. This provides strong support for the second research axis by clarifying the underlying mechanism through which perfectionistic standards are enacted and sustained.

Overall, this thesis provided a theoretical advancement on the role of perfectionism in shaping the psychological experience of graduate students, with a particular focus on the enactment and maintenance of impostor feelings. This thesis laid the groundwork for future research aimed at examining the interplay between dispositional traits and situational pressures in graduate education. Collectively, offering theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions to the fields of perfectionism, impostor phenomenon, and psychological adjustment in higher education.