The motivational leveraging of impostor phenomenon to manage cognitive dissonance in graduate school: Individual behaviors,familial support,and empty support

Abstract

This qualitative study investigates how individual behaviors and family support shape graduate students’ management of cognitive dissonance evoked by Impostor Phenomenon (IP) during graduate education. We surveyed current graduate students (N = 124) and analyzed responses from open-ended questions (N = 620) in which responses ranged from one sentence to four, lengthy paragraphs. The findings suggest graduate students use perceived IP as a motivational force to (1) enhance knowledge and develop skills, (2) seek/receive expert validation through self-disclosure, (3) seek social support from peers, and (4) sense-make academic/scholarly identity. The findings also reveal family members offer (5) esteem support, (6) emotional support, and (7) instrumental and informational support to help graduate students navigate cognitive dissonance. However, not all types of support are perceived as helpful, such as (8) empty support (coined as well-intentioned encouragement lacking an understanding of graduate students’ expressed challenges, resulting in feelings of dismissal/invalidation). These findings underscore how IP can be motivationally leveraged in cognitive dissonance management in graduate school.

Keywords

Impostor phenomenon graduate students family support cognitive dissonance empty support

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