Keynote Speakers
Dr Deborah Husbands
Chartered Psychologist and Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Westminster
Dr Orkun Yetkili
Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Westminster
Afternoon Keynote
Dr Deborah Husbands, Dr Orkun Yetkili
Keynote Speakers
The impostor phenomenon (IP) is a feeling of 'intellectual phoniness' and the fear of being discovered as a fraud in one's environment (Clance & Imes, 1978). IP contributes to low self-worth, self-doubt and a reduced sense of belonging. The effects are compound when impostorism intersects with a gendered and racialised identity. Dr Orkun Yetkili and Dr Deborah Husbands report the findings from a multi-method funded project. Participants were Black female undergraduate students in the UK and the US. The quantitative study found that as feelings of being an impostor increased, students reported lower belongingness and reduced task and citizenship performance. Sense of belonging mediated the effect of IP on school satisfaction and student performance measures. The qualitative study gathered four themes from focus group data with a novel finding. Implications and recommendations will be discussed.