Impostorization in Academia, Psychological Distress, and Class Reproduction

Abstract

Might “impostor syndrome” be more than the private trouble it is often described to be? Instead, might it be deeply rooted in sociological processes? I explore this possibility drawing on my personal experience and Pearlin’s insistence that much that distresses us in our personal lives originates in social structures. I use Bourdieu’s theory to conceptualize the processes that may instill the “syndrome,” and once in place, surreptitiously recreate inequality. I test this conceptualization, using new sociologically relevant measures, in a stratified sample of over 2,000 American college students. Experiencing impostor concerns in college was significantly related to low parental income. Results were consistent with a model in which impostor concerns mediate the association of low parental income to depression/anxiety and low college persistence. Cultural aspects of impostorization played a larger role than the intellectual aspects emphasized in the traditional conceptualization of impostor syndrome. I advocate the replacement of the within-the-person term “impostor syndrome” with the sociological term “impostorization.”