The imposter phenomenon : locus of control, sex, level of education, generation status, age and race in a college population

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impostor phenomenon (IP), an internal feeling of intellectual phoniness that was originally discovered in a group of highly successful women (Clance & Imes, 1979), by administering Harvey's IP Scale, Ratter's Internal-External Locus of Control Scale (LOC) and a demographic questionnaire to 126 college students (73 women and 53 men). The goal of this study was to examine the relationships between the impostor phenomenon locus of control, gender, level of education, generation status, age and race. Results indicated a significant positive relationship between the impostor phenomenon and locus of control. No other constructs were found to be significantly related to the impostor phenomenon.