Doctoral Students' Perceptions of Imposterism and Academic Challenges in an Interdisciplinary Program

Abstract

Graduate students are increasingly reporting experiencing emotional stress and feelings of imposterism in their graduate education. This chapter describes an exploratory study of STEM doctoral students' imposter phenomenon (IP), academic self-concept, and self-efficacy to gain insight into how these socioemotional constructs influence students' perceived graduate experiences. Forty-four doctoral students completed an IP survey. Twenty-two students with the highest and lowest quartile scores on the IP scale were interviewed. Results showed High-IP and Low-IP students differed in their self-efficacy, academic self-concept, and the emotions they reported feeling when confronted with academic challenges. High-IP respondents were least confident about research design, writing research articles, and creating a research proposal. There was also evidence that students experienced shifting academic self-concept related to being in an interdisciplinary program. The challenges of supporting students' self-efficacy, self-concept, and emotions are discussed.