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Investigating Impostorism Among Undergraduate Medical Students at Sultan Qaboos University: A Questionnaire-Based Study

Background Imposter syndrome or phenomenon (IP) is a behavioral phenomenon observed in successful individuals where they fail to recognize and internalize their achievements. It is often accompanied by feelings of self-doubt, anxiety, depression, and worries of being exposed as frauds, with the impo...

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Autores principales: Al Lawati, Abdullah, Al Wahaibi, Anas, Al Kharusi, Fatma, Fai Chan, Moon, Al Sinawi, Hamed
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cureus 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10590478/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37872940
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.45752
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author Al Lawati, Abdullah
Al Wahaibi, Anas
Al Kharusi, Fatma
Fai Chan, Moon
Al Sinawi, Hamed
author_facet Al Lawati, Abdullah
Al Wahaibi, Anas
Al Kharusi, Fatma
Fai Chan, Moon
Al Sinawi, Hamed
author_sort Al Lawati, Abdullah
collection PubMed
description Background Imposter syndrome or phenomenon (IP) is a behavioral phenomenon observed in successful individuals where they fail to recognize and internalize their achievements. It is often accompanied by feelings of self-doubt, anxiety, depression, and worries of being exposed as frauds, with the impostors often attributing their achievements to external factors like good luck and timing. The presence of IP among medical students is gaining more attention, with studies reporting a strong association with burnout phenomenon, anxiety, and depression. Objectives This study sought to determine the prevalence of IP among Omani medical students and classify the levels of severity among the sample. Methodology This was a cross-sectional, observational study conducted at a public university in Muscat, Oman. The Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale (CIPS), a validated publicly available questionnaire, was used to determine whether students exhibited impostorism. Students who scored 63 or higher in the CIPS were classified as impostors. In addition, students were also classified based on the severity of their impostorism. As per the CIPS, scores between 41 and 60 indicate mild impostorism, scores between 61 and 80 indicate moderate impostorism, and finally scores between 81 and 100 indicate severe impostorism. Results A total of 276 students participated (M 34%, F 66%), of which 144 (52.2%) were found to have IP with 12.7% exhibiting severe impostorism.  Conclusion The results show that IP is present in significant frequencies among medical students; further studies are needed to address this problem.
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spelling pubmed-105904782023-10-23 Investigating Impostorism Among Undergraduate Medical Students at Sultan Qaboos University: A Questionnaire-Based Study Al Lawati, Abdullah Al Wahaibi, Anas Al Kharusi, Fatma Fai Chan, Moon Al Sinawi, Hamed Cureus Psychiatry Background Imposter syndrome or phenomenon (IP) is a behavioral phenomenon observed in successful individuals where they fail to recognize and internalize their achievements. It is often accompanied by feelings of self-doubt, anxiety, depression, and worries of being exposed as frauds, with the impostors often attributing their achievements to external factors like good luck and timing. The presence of IP among medical students is gaining more attention, with studies reporting a strong association with burnout phenomenon, anxiety, and depression. Objectives This study sought to determine the prevalence of IP among Omani medical students and classify the levels of severity among the sample. Methodology This was a cross-sectional, observational study conducted at a public university in Muscat, Oman. The Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale (CIPS), a validated publicly available questionnaire, was used to determine whether students exhibited impostorism. Students who scored 63 or higher in the CIPS were classified as impostors. In addition, students were also classified based on the severity of their impostorism. As per the CIPS, scores between 41 and 60 indicate mild impostorism, scores between 61 and 80 indicate moderate impostorism, and finally scores between 81 and 100 indicate severe impostorism. Results A total of 276 students participated (M 34%, F 66%), of which 144 (52.2%) were found to have IP with 12.7% exhibiting severe impostorism.  Conclusion The results show that IP is present in significant frequencies among medical students; further studies are needed to address this problem. Cureus 2023-09-22 /pmc/articles/PMC10590478/ /pubmed/37872940 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.45752 Text en Copyright © 2023, Al Lawati et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Psychiatry
Al Lawati, Abdullah
Al Wahaibi, Anas
Al Kharusi, Fatma
Fai Chan, Moon
Al Sinawi, Hamed
Investigating Impostorism Among Undergraduate Medical Students at Sultan Qaboos University: A Questionnaire-Based Study
title Investigating Impostorism Among Undergraduate Medical Students at Sultan Qaboos University: A Questionnaire-Based Study
title_full Investigating Impostorism Among Undergraduate Medical Students at Sultan Qaboos University: A Questionnaire-Based Study
title_fullStr Investigating Impostorism Among Undergraduate Medical Students at Sultan Qaboos University: A Questionnaire-Based Study
title_full_unstemmed Investigating Impostorism Among Undergraduate Medical Students at Sultan Qaboos University: A Questionnaire-Based Study
title_short Investigating Impostorism Among Undergraduate Medical Students at Sultan Qaboos University: A Questionnaire-Based Study
title_sort investigating impostorism among undergraduate medical students at sultan qaboos university: a questionnaire-based study
topic Psychiatry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10590478/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37872940
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.45752
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