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High Impostors Are More Hesitant to Ask for Help
1Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Fear of impostorism can hinder help-seeking behaviors, particularly in challenging subjects like math. Students may avoid seeking assistance due to concerns about appearing incompetent, impacting their learning and performance.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Educational Psychology
- Metacognition Research
Background:
- Help-seeking is crucial for learning, involving metacognitive monitoring and control.
- Difficulties in initiating help-seeking may signal metacognitive deficits or a desire to conceal knowledge gaps.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the link between metacognition, impostorism, and help-seeking behavior.
- To explore how the fear of being perceived as a fraud influences students' willingness to seek help.
Main Methods:
- Participants solved math and verbal reasoning problems, with an option to request solutions.
- Impostorism levels were assessed, and help-seeking patterns were analyzed in relation to problem type and performance.
Main Results:
- Students sought help more frequently for math problems than verbal problems.
- Help-seeking correlated positively with improved performance.
- Higher impostorism scores were associated with reduced help-seeking and longer delays for math problems.
Conclusions:
- Impostorism may inhibit help-seeking, especially in demanding academic areas like mathematics.
- Addressing impostorism could be key to promoting effective help-seeking strategies in education.
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