چكيده لاتين
The present study aimed to discover the formation of imposter syndrome, and select and determine the effect of appropriate career intervention on the symptoms and career consequences of this syndrome in postgraduate students at the University of Isfahan.
The method of this research was a sequential mixed method including an explanatory design of participant selection and an exploratory design of classification development, which was carried out in three stages. The first stage was dedicated to discovering the formation of imposter syndrome. The research population of this stage was postgraduate students with imposter syndrome at the University of Isfahan in the academic year 2022-2023. First, using quantitative data from the implementation of the Clance Imposter Phenomenon Scale, 30 students were purposefully selected to participate in the qualitative stage. The qualitative research method was grounded theory, using semi-structured in-depth interviews to ask participants about their experience with imposter syndrome, and the interviews continued until theoretical saturation. The findings were then analyzed using Strauss and Corbinʹs method, and a theoretical model of imposter syndrome formation in postgraduate students was developed. To examine the validity of the qualitative findings, credibility, transferability, and dependability methods were used.
In the second stage, based on the theoretical model developed in the first stage, to reduce the symptoms of imposter syndrome and manage its career consequences, four features were considered for an appropriate career intervention, which were long-term, holistic, context-based, and preventive. and finally, the Life and Career Design Dialogues Intervention was selected.
The third stage was dedicated to examining the effect of the life and career design dialogues intervention on the symptoms of imposter syndrome and its career consequences. The research population of this stage was postgraduate students with imposter syndrome at the University of Isfahan in the academic year 2024-2025. The quantitative research method was semi-experimental. First, using the Clance Imposter Phenomenon Scale, 30 participants were purposefully selected and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups. Participants in the experimental group received individual intervention over five sessions. To measure imposter syndrome and its career consequences, The Clance Imposter Phenomenon Scale, Perceived Employability Scale, Career Indecision Questionnaire, Career Satisfaction Scale, and Academic Burnout Questionnaire were used.
The results of the qualitative interview showed that the theoretical model of imposter syndrome included contextual conditions with four items including searching for mother, interaction between siblings, perception of parentsʹ educational and occupational status, and perception of oneʹs role in the family system. The causal conditions included nine items: competitiveness, independence, idealism, the mirage of success, purposefulness, fear of the future, immortality, curiosity, and insufficient me, all of which are components of the inflated agency. The intervening conditions included two categories: disciplinary system, and debt to a supportive environment. The strategies included two categories: familiar strategies and reflective strategies, and the consequences were classified into three categories: ineffective psychological consequences, contrasted career consequences, and effective career consequences. To validate and ensure the validity of the developed model, based on the opinions of experts, Lawsheʹs content validity ratio index was obtained as 1, and Waltz, & Bausellʹs content validity index was calculated as 0.88.
