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A study of German-speaking adults found that people who recalled their parents as overprotective and controlling tended to report stronger impostor feelings and higher levels of vulnerable narcissism. Both impostor feelings and vulnerable narcissism were also linked to higher attachment anxiety and lower trust in others. Despite this overlap, statistical analyses indicated that the impostor self-concept and vulnerable narcissism are distinct psychological characteristics. The paper was published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
The impostor phenomenon, also known as the impostor self-concept, refers to persistent feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt despite objective evidence of one’s competence and achievements. People experiencing this phenomenon tend to attribute their successes to luck, excessive effort, or external circumstances rather than their own abilities. They also tend to fear that others will eventually discover their supposed incompetence. These feelings are associated with anxiety, depression, perfectionism, low self-esteem, and difficulties accepting recognition from others.
Although the impostor phenomenon may initially appear to be the opposite of narcissism, both involve difficulties regulating self-worth and maintaining a stable self-image. Researchers commonly distinguish between grandiose narcissism, characterized by inflated self-importance, dominance, and a desire for admiration, and vulnerable narcissism, characterized by insecurity, emotional sensitivity, defensiveness, and feelings of inadequacy. Vulnerable narcissism shares several characteristics with the impostor phenomenon, including fragile self-esteem, anxiety, dependence on external validation, and difficulties in interpersonal relationships.
However, narcissism also involves feelings of entitlement and antagonistic tendencies toward others, which are not defining features of the impostor phenomenon. Childhood experiences, particularly controlling, overprotective, critical, or emotionally invalidating parenting, have been associated with the development of impostor feelings and vulnerable narcissistic traits, while supportive parenting is generally associated with fewer impostor feelings. Both the impostor phenomenon and vulnerable narcissism have also been linked to insecure attachment in adulthood, particularly attachment anxiety, which involves fear of rejection, difficulties trusting others, and a strong need for reassurance.
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Study author Kristina Klug of Goethe University Frankfurt and colleagues explored the relationships between the impostor self-concept and two forms of narcissism, grandiose and vulnerable. They hypothesized that the impostor self-concept and vulnerable narcissism would show similar links to parenting experiences and adult attachment.
Specifically, they expected both to be positively associated with recalled parental rejection and punishment and with control and overprotection, and negatively associated with emotional warmth experienced in childhood. They also expected people with more pronounced impostor feelings or narcissism to have less secure attachment tendencies, and they tested whether the impostor self-concept could be statistically distinguished from narcissism.
Study participants were 339 individuals between 16 and 80 years of age, with an average age of 33 years. About 71% were women, 46% were employed, and 41% were students. They completed an online survey between February and April 2023.
Participants completed assessments of the impostor self-concept (the Impostor-Selbstkonzept-Fragebogen), narcissism (the German Five-Factor Narcissism Inventory Brief Form), recalled parental rearing styles (the Fragebogen zum erinnerten elterlichen Erziehungsverhalten, a short German version of the Swedish EMBU questionnaire), and adult attachment tendencies (the Revised Adult Attachment Scale). The parenting questionnaire measured three dimensions: rejection and punishment, emotional warmth, and control and overprotection. The attachment scale measured comfort with closeness, trust in others, and attachment anxiety.
Results showed that the impostor self-concept was strongly associated with vulnerable narcissism, while its association with grandiose narcissism was much weaker. People with more pronounced impostor feelings reported weaker trust in other people, less comfort with closeness, and greater attachment anxiety. They also tended to recall their parents as more rejecting and punishing, as well as more controlling and overprotective.
Vulnerable narcissism showed a similar pattern of associations. However, when the researchers examined the three parenting dimensions together, only control and overprotection remained uniquely linked to the impostor self-concept and vulnerable narcissism. Contrary to the researchers’ expectations, emotional warmth was not linked to either one.
Grandiose narcissism followed a different pattern. It was linked to recalled control and overprotection and, when other parenting dimensions were taken into account, to greater emotional warmth, but it was not uniquely linked to any of the attachment tendencies.
Further statistical analyses indicated that the impostor self-concept, vulnerable narcissism, and grandiose narcissism are best treated as three distinct characteristics, in spite of the overlap between them. Treating the impostor self-concept and vulnerable narcissism as a single trait produced a worse fit to the data.
“The present study identified the potentially causal influences of parenting behavior on the impostor self-concept and narcissism, and their consequences for adult attachment tendencies. These influences, in turn, can significantly impact an individual’s quality of life and mental health,” the study authors concluded.
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of how the impostor self-concept relates to narcissism. However, it should be noted that all data came from self-reports, and information about parental rearing practices was based on participants’ recall of their childhood. This leaves room for reporting and recall bias to have affected the results.
Additionally, the study was cross-sectional. As the authors acknowledge, their statistical models do not establish whether parenting shaped these traits or whether these traits shape attachment, and the reverse directions are also plausible. Recalled parenting styles explained only about 11% of the variation in impostor feelings and vulnerable narcissism, the sample was predominantly female and recruited online, and the researchers’ hypotheses were not preregistered.
The paper, “Me, My Self (Concept), and I – Disentangling the Link Between Narcissism and the Impostor Self-Concept,” was authored by Kristina Klug, Mona Leonhardt, Sophie Oprée, Sinem Rhein, and Sonja Rohrmann.
