I'm obviously interested in this subject for some deeply personal reasons-- and I've thus far found that the research in this area is surprisingly thin on the ground, given how frequently perfectionism with socially-prescribed tendencies seems to occur in HG/HG+ children, and in females in particular.
Honestly, in reading the descriptors of
Imposter Syndome as a construct, (see also
here, and
here ). I'm struck rather forcefully by just how indistinguishable it appears to be from, say--
the description of Socially-Prescribed perfectionism, (as a construct) (also see
here for a fuller discussion of how this concept applies particularly to high ability children). I'm wondering if there IS a difference, or if this is simply a difference between what adolescent and young adult clinicians have chosen to label the phenomenon that they see as deeply maladaptive in adolescents, and the phenomenon that academics recognize so well because so many of them share it.
Anyway.
Kets de Vries (2005) suggests that the source of the impostor phenomenon may be found in dysfunctional families where parents are overinvested in the achievement of their children and in socially disadvantaged families where achievement is inconsistent with family expectations. He proposes that symptoms of a "neurotic" impostor may be a fear of failure or of success, a tendency toward perfectionism, procrastination, and a workaholic personality.
BUT--
The impostor phenomenon may be examined as an outcome of overreward. That is, the individual feels that he/she holds a job with specifications and/or pay level that exceed expectations relative to the individual's self-perception of qualifications, talent, and capabilities. For example, upon receipt of a job offer, a job applicant may feel that he/she is not fully qualified for a position or that a mistake occurred within the hiring process. This job offer will cause feelings of inequity within the applicant because of self-doubt regarding abilities and qualifications. Once this job offer has been extended, the applicant has two choices--accept or reject the offer. At this point, the applicant may feel some sort of dissatisfaction or unease because of the inequity. This may come in the form of an unpleasant emotional state such as guilt (Adams, 1965; Gilliland, 1993). If the applicant chooses to reject the job offer, the inequity will be reduced and there will be no more feelings of dissatisfaction (Adams, 1965; Pritchard et al., 1972). The other option available to the applicant is to accept the job offer and the feelings of inequity that come with this decision.
Equity theory is particularly relevant for analyzing this process. According to this theory, individuals compare themselves to a referent other, which can be oneself, another individual, or an imagined other in terms of the ratio of outcomes to inputs (Adams, 1963, 1965). The individual will feel that the outcomes received are fair and equitable, or unfair and inequitable relative to those received by the referent other.
Now, here is where I find the subject of giftedness and of HIGH levels of giftedness in particular to be of interest-- why on earth would we assume that IP is not the result of that inequity in the first place? After all, children who are very high LOG, and who also develop social awareness as part of their asynchronous profile might well also develop a sense of social justice, right? This is a common trait on checklists of high LOG, in fact-- it's known to be fairly common in HG+ children. Social development tends to be asynchronous and advanced preferentially in female children of high LOG (though of course that is anecdotal).
So what I'm thinking is that maybe this is at the root of some types of perfectionism in these children-- because heaven knows that we've moved heaven and earth to try to undercut DD's tendencies toward perfectionism, and it's mostly been to no avail.
Now in college, she is
still self-sabotaging anytime she faces risk in evaluation outcomes, is fearful of not being "that smart" and is anxious about the expectations of others-- and I truly believe (she's living at home, so I can see her) that this is the direct result of her IP/socially-prescribed perfectionism, which-- as noted-- I'm not sure is functionally differentiable. She is also clearly experiencing some dissonance in that she wants to be LIKED (by friends, a romantic partner, etc.) and she also wants to HIDE what she is from those people-- or perhaps it is that she doesn't believe in it herself? I'm not sure.
Her fear seems to be that others will 'discover' her and dislike or reject her. She also struggles with the ideation that her "best" will fall short, and this fuels a lot of angst and procrastination (but it's selective, not global). Her home life has
not been dysfunctional, we have been supportive without robbing her of autonomy or agency, etc. But she (like most of the other children here) has
always known that she was different from others. She has also
always had a keen sense of compassion and altruism for other people. So I have very little doubt that such a sense of inequity has existed in her mind for a very long time-- probably since she was 2 or 3 years of age.
It's the connection to IP that intrigues me about this possibility. It might be that this is a perfect storm kind of thing that occurs in gifted girls (cultural influences) with high LOG (asynchrony and high cognitive capacity that outstrips emotional regulation) and high altruism/social justice (inequity sensitivity) to produce a person who is guilt-prone and more than a touch neurotic about the opinions and perceptions of others, and to the sense that they've done nothing to EARN their high cognitive capacity, and maybe they don't
deserve it. (I can recall having similar thoughts entwined with task-avoidance in college-- it was highly maladaptive, to say the least).
Of course, on a pragmatic front, I have to wonder what on earth to DO about it. I wish I knew what the secret sauce was for me at 21, because it kind of turned off like a light switch at that point-- something must have done it, but I can't recall or pinpoint what it was. We have seemingly tried almost everything that she will cooperate with and a few things that she has not-- to little effect.
Some other interesting resources on this subject:
Okay-- it's a PT article. But it's at least based upon a research study.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/coll...rfectionism-procrastination-and-distresshttp://crl.acrl.org/content/75/3/255.full.pdfhttp://www.academia.edu/325596/Impo...ith_Parenting_Styles_and_Self-Confidencehttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886914002062http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3169326/http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886909001688http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092656612001195http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14705159http://gcq.sagepub.com/content/48/3/219.abstracthttp://sites.education.uky.edu/moti...ButzUsher_Perfectionism_Poster_FINAL.pdfhttp://psychcentral.com/news/2014/09/26/perfectionism-linked-to-suicide/75399.html(The above is something that I've felt
instinctively just through observation of my own DD-- and my father before her). It is the number one reason why I refuse to just "let her figure this out" on her own.
http://nmgifted.org/GAC%20Resources/Perfectionism%20The%20Crucible%20of%20Giftedness-SILVERMAN.pdf
