Impostor Phenomenon: Scale Development and Validation

Impostor phenomenon is psychological experience of perceived intellectual fraudulence and attributing success to external causes despite one’s objective qualifications, intelligence and accomplishments (Bravata et al., 2020; Clance, 1985). Such strong psychological distress and impact on mental health led to the increasing interest in the phenomenon in peer-reviewed literature (Bravata et al., 2020; Sheveleva, 2023). However, there is no agreement in the literature on either a conceptualization of the phenomenon (Wilke, 2018) or a golden standard to measure it (Mak et al., 2019). The existing measurement scales seem to face difficulties in capturing the multifaced nature of impostor phenomenon and lack consistency in factor structure and psychometric properties (Mak et al., 2019). This study closed the gap in differentiating impostor phenomenon from related constructs and presented the first attempt to develop an impostor phenomenon assessment instrument in the Russian language. Two independent samples were collected (N=393 and N=280) to evaluate factor structure using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and to support validity of the Impostor Phenomenon Scale. The results showed that the expected six-factor structure including Perceived fraudulence, Working style, Discounting praise and success, Misattributing success, Self-doubts and Fear of negative evaluation had a good fit for the collected data. The 25-items IPS demonstrated high internal consistency (Cronbach's α = .93), measurement equivalence by gender, and its construct validity has been established based on evidence of discriminant and convergent validity against related scales and constructs. Results of the study have a practical value for academic, professional, consulting and psychological institutions.   Keywords: impostor phenomenon, perceived fraudulence, scale construction, psychometric assessment, impostor syndrome, psychometric validation