Date of Conferral

2023

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Susan Marcus

Abstract

The modern workplace and public media have reported on the influence of the impostor phenomenon (IP) on leadership mental health and workplace effectiveness. The choice of coping strategy may influence leaders’ intentions to seek psychological help. Guided by the impostor cycle model, the purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the extent to which adaptive and maladaptive coping mediates the relationship between IP and help-seeking intention in a convenience sample of 162 participants in leadership positions. The Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale assessed strength of IP, the Brief COPE measure assessed adaptive and maladaptive coping, and the Beliefs About Psychological Services Scale assessed three dimensions of help seeking: intention to seek help, stigma about seeking help, and expertness of the helper. Preliminary analyses revealed that IP positively predicted help seeking for intention and expertness and negatively predicted stigma about help seeking. IP positively predicted maladaptive and adaptive coping, confirming the model’s inference that people higher in IP do everything to be successful. Mediation analyses revealed that maladaptive coping negatively mediated the relationship between IP and stigma about help seeking, and adaptive coping positively mediated the relationship between IP and the expertness of the helper. These results may increase awareness of the value of help seeking in professionals experiencing IP, and may be used to develop interventions that mitigate resistance toward mental health help seeking due to stigma. These efforts could better support young leaders who need help balancing the striving for success with the quality of life.

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