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GeorgeDaGreat123 OP t1_j1psdqj wrote

Data Source: A 50 question survey that my team and I conducted at my university. Around 80% of those surveyed responded. The male:female ratio of those surveyed was 3:2, which was roughly equal to the gender ratio of respondents (also 3:2).

Survey Methodology: For this particular question, survey participants were asked to provide their high school average to 1 decimal place and rate their imposter syndrome on a scale of 0 to 10 (0 being nonexistent or extremely low, 10 being extremely high).

Tools Used: Google Forms for data collection, Node.js for data cleaning/formatting/analysis, React.js for data visualization. Added additional labels and statistics using Affinity Designer. Took about 300 lines of JavaScript code in total.

Based on the graph, it seems that women face far greater imposter syndrome than men, when starting a Software Engineering degree, despite having similar high school averages.

Questions and criticisms welcome.

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CrushgrooveSC t1_j1pzsfj wrote

Your source methodology doesn’t share how you defined imposter syndrome to the subjective self-diagnosing survey group. Imposter syndrome by definition isn’t really something that you experience if you’re aware that you’re experiencing it.

They are first year college students. One isn’t expected to know anything.

In this circumstance; Identifying that they are extremely weak and need to study a ton and feel ignorant of CS and Programming is not imposter syndrome, it’s just accurate awareness of their current progress.

Your methodology also does not show the subjective, self identifying imposter’s performance against any kind of control group. If, for example, the surveyed persons performed highly relative to people who did NOT self-diagnose with the condition based on whatever your prompt was, then you may have a point. But if, however, they were poorly performing, then they didn’t have imposter syndrome… they are rightly worried and aware of their poor performance.

My criticism would be that this data, as presented, does not tell me anything about imposter syndrome, but rather only the confidence level of some surveyed people in their own performance/aptitude. This by itself is not enough data to assess imposter syndrome.

Their high school GPA feels like an extremely low corollary data point.

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GeorgeDaGreat123 OP t1_j1qbjpw wrote

Thank you for the comment. I agree "confidence level" would have been a better way of wording it than "imposter syndrome".

The reason I used that word is just because it's the word our university faculty and professors chose to use to describe "confidence level".

Our admissions into our university faculty is extremely competitive in Canada, even surpassing a few American schools, and they see a wave of incoming freshman slowly lose their hope and confidence in themself, so professors often give speeches about "imposter syndrome".

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CrushgrooveSC t1_j1qcdlu wrote

Thanks for the reply, and for responding so considerately to criticism! I think it’s a worthwhile data gathering activity, and personally would be very interested in more detailed, scientific, controlled and correlated data in this area, and I think there is LOTS of room in the domain for real research if you were thinking of doing it more.

Unfortunately, almost all data I’ve seen on this domain has very similar oversight or gaps and it makes it difficult to create actionable policy or even opinions without further research.

I wish you and your university well!

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turgy22 t1_j1pwjte wrote

I'd be curious to see how the survey questions were worded. It could be possible the female participants were more likely to admit to having imposter syndrome, even though a similar number of males have the same confidence issues.

Also, high school curriculum may be a big factor that isn't addressed. Getting higher grades in irrelevant subjects would be less valuable than average grades in courses that provide an introduction to software development.

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GeorgeDaGreat123 OP t1_j1qa6k2 wrote

The 2 questions were worded similar to my comment above:

Please provide your high school average (to 1 decimal place)

Rate your imposter syndrome! 0 = I was bred for this program 10 = I think the admissions committee got my application mixed up with someone else's

You make a fair point in the last bit. This survey was sent out at the very beginning of the term, before any university curriculum was taught, so the conclusion still holds — but the reason for that could be that women in software engineering generally enter university with less coding experience than men in thr same situation. Anyways, sounds interesting, I might dig through the data and make another graph later.

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MindStalker t1_j1qjz61 wrote

Would be interesting to later compare to university grades. I wouldn't be surprised if the men who were less different score better while women who are more confident score better. I could be totally wrong though.

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throw_somewhere t1_j1tl051 wrote

Respectfully, what on earth is going on with the wording for those questions? Why would the first question be a polite request (question with "please") while the second is a startling command (demand with exclamation mark)? In what world is "Rate your [sensitive confession]!" an appropriate way, verbally, to elicit that data?

You took your one psych class which is more than enough to know that those things matter. If this were any sort of formal research project all your data would be tossed in the garbage, do not pass go do not collect $200, because you don't pass even the second most basic level of smell test (the first being that you didn't dox them, their entire families, and their dog).

Please do some reading on how to conduct surveys before doing any more.

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GeorgeDaGreat123 OP t1_j1urwjv wrote

My team and I gathered data for this 50 question survey before I took that psych class. However, point taken. Thanks

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xavia91 t1_j1ptr46 wrote

Why did you focus on highschool grades? They represent nothing of value for how good someone can do as software engineer.

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Altofaltception t1_j1ptvqw wrote

They are first year students.

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xavia91 t1_j1pulqe wrote

Okay then I have to ask, how can someone who is an absolute noob in their field of study have imposter syndrome?

Knowing next to nothing is basically the definition of what is expected of you.

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GeorgeDaGreat123 OP t1_j1qcc4k wrote

Yes, thank you for the comment. I agree confidence level would have been a better word choice.

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ezriah33 t1_j1qcofx wrote

I would actually not use the term confidence level in the chart since that has a statistical meaning and could be confusing. Maybe confidence in ability or something more descriptive

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Pac_Eddy t1_j1pv8z9 wrote

It's a measure of their confidence, not necessarily what they know.

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xavia91 t1_j1pvgwv wrote

Then it should be called that, because not being confident and imposter syndrome are two different things.

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Pac_Eddy t1_j1pvxej wrote

They're very similar things.

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WoWMHC t1_j1pwr03 wrote

Not really… coming from someone who has experienced imposter syndrome.

“Confidence is about what we can and can't do. Imposter Syndrome is about who we think we are.”

Imposter syndrome makes you feel like a fraud or you don’t belong. It has nothing to do with what you feel you can and can’t do.

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Altofaltception t1_j1qber3 wrote

>Imposter syndrome makes you feel like a fraud or you don’t belong.

A first year student can have those same feelings: "am I good enough to be at this school? I'm not as smart as all these other students."

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Pac_Eddy t1_j1pwws5 wrote

Nope.

Have a good day.

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WoWMHC t1_j1pxg6t wrote

Nice one. Enjoy that level of ignorance for the rest of your life. It’ll serve you well.

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epic1107 t1_j1q07vl wrote

In this setting, imposter syndrome would focus around the students not believing they are smart enough, given the school environment. You are the one being ignorant.

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WoWMHC t1_j1q4d1v wrote

Then it’s not imposter syndrome, it’s a lack of confidence. Imposter syndrome is knowing you can do something but feeling like you don’t belong there.

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epic1107 t1_j1q4jtz wrote

Impostor syndrome is the internal psychological experience of feeling like a phony in some area of your life, despite any success that you have achieved in that area

This is a graph showing people who believe they don't belong (feeling like a phony), despite the success they have achieved (high academic grades).

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Thenerdy9 t1_j1pxcde wrote

Is Nm=Nw? I can't tell if you just have more men responders and that's why there is a cluster of men without any women on the chart.

otherwise, I don't know that I can visually see this in the data that is so obvious, I'd love to see some stats.

Looks like imposter syndrome is universally experienced by most, but there is one clear deviation with a cluster of blues that are low.... what do they share? Dod they grow up with more privalege? Have the been working for longer? Do they take advantage of more support services? Are they more extroverted?

Also, would be insightful to include nonbinary. If you're specifically looking at a social gender difference, I theorieze that nonbinary gendered people would feel less imposter syndrome. Though, also nonbinary is multifaceted, so if you had a big enough sample size you could investigate this more.

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GeorgeDaGreat123 OP t1_j1qbvls wrote

The ratio of men to women was roughly 3:2

I've provided the mean and the std deviation at the top of the chart for each number by gender, so you don't have to rely solely on the graph which as you mention may have a few flaws.

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RelativeAssistant923 t1_j1q7i13 wrote

You provide a standard deviation, but not a p value or anything that reflects statistical significance.

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KeepTangoAndFoxtrot t1_j1pundo wrote

> Around 80% of those surveyed responded.

Holy cow that's an incredible response rate! Were responses incentivized in any way?

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3pbc t1_j1pv5me wrote

Sounds like an experiment that have freshmen as their subjects who are extremely encouraged to participate

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GeorgeDaGreat123 OP t1_j1qc75p wrote

No incentives, but we email this 50 question survey out to freshman at the beginning of the term. We also get our department leads and professors to send out an email to everyone.

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arekniedowiarek t1_j1q40sc wrote

Did you have there an explanation of what an impostor syndrom is?

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GeorgeDaGreat123 OP t1_j1r7bjw wrote

It is supposedly rampant every year at our university, so faculty heads and professors often write emails or perform speeches about it, especially to freshman.

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rollie82 t1_j1q8hw3 wrote

This seems to suggest that the major itself is meaningful; I'd want to know how this compares to similar studies in other STEM and non-STEM fields. Basically looking at this I ask myself "do female students just profess less confidence than their male counterparts in general?"

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Sheamus_1852 t1_j1q7mhh wrote

Females in general have a high rate of perfectionism, it would stand to reason that they have a higher rate of imposter syndrome. I would assume those with imposter syndrome generally focus on what they missed/failed rather than what was right.

I’d also say this is a relatively skewed data set. Software engineering is a highly male dominated area of study (roughly 16% of software engineering degrees are earned by women). There is probably imposter tendencies from a point of gender bias or a need to prove gender strength. I’d be curious to see the difference if you surveyed a nursing program or early childhood education program. You could probably have a more even gender divide if you did a marketing program.

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Lycoris1313 t1_j1qb5cl wrote

I agree with there being a skew or bias based off the gender-split of the degree and the degree itself. Though I'd be curious to know when this poll was completed -- before freshman year started, 1 week in, 1 month in, etc.
When I was in undergrad, I was studying engineering where only 15% were women. Very quickly in my freshman year I realized that I was constantly put down and criticized by my male classmates for any little mistake or mishap - I had to report 4 men within my semester for sexual harassment and harassment in general. It was a huge blow to my self-confidence and certainly made me question my own abilities and suitability for the degree.
It would be interesting to see what the numbers would look like if this was polled during or before orientation week vs. 1/6/12 months vs. graduation week of senior year.

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GeorgeDaGreat123 OP t1_j1qfd4i wrote

Thank you for the comment.

This was completed within the first week (during orientation week) before any proper curriculum was taught. There were many speeches and emails about "imposter syndrome" from faculty heads and professors though, as it seems to be a significant problem at my university every year.

The male:female ratio here was 3:2 so I would assume it is probably less likely for harassment to happen.

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GeorgeDaGreat123 OP t1_j1qcv7j wrote

This survey had a male to female ratio of 3:2 (which is the same as the composition of the software engineering program at my university). Yes that last part sounds quite interesting.

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radioowl t1_j1qve7b wrote

It would be interesting to share this with your program coordinator to create support groups for women in the program to help build confidence while in school to help them with their career once they graduate. Confidence is a skill that needs to be practiced.

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