Feeling as if you don't belong -- that you've landed in a fortunate spot by luck or by accident -- can send anyone into a tailspin, from college students to corporate executives.
感觉自己不属于所处的环境――认为自己是凭运气或偶然才到达这个幸运的位置――会让你陷入消沉，无论你是大学生还是企业高管。
Imposter fears are common among men and women alike, research shows, and are blamed for an array of problems, from high college-failure and dropout rates to low female participation in math, engineering and science jobs.
研究表明，“冒名顶替者恐惧”(imposter fears)在男性和女性中均很常见，被认为是引发一系列问题的祸因，比如造成大学挂科率和退学率高企，以及女性从事数学、工程和科学工作的比例很低等。
Separate from general emotional insecurity, imposter fears affect high achievers and focus on worries about being exposed as a phony. These feelings can come up in many situations in the workplace -- when an executive is called upon to accept a promotion, dig into a tough project, or give voice to a fledgling idea. Joyce Roche, a former senior executive at Avon Products, worried in secret for years that she was 'not as smart, not as prepared, not as good as my counterparts,' says Ms. Roche, author of a recent book on the topic, 'The Empress Has No Clothes.'
与普通情感上的不安全感不同，“冒名顶替者恐惧”影响的是成就较高者，主要与担心自己会被揭为名不副实的忧虑有关。这些感觉会在职场的许多情境中出现，比如管理者在获得晋升机会、被要求实施一个棘手的项目或表达一个尚未完全成熟的想法时。乔伊丝・罗奇(Joyce Roche)原是雅芳(Avon Products)的一名高管，她说多年来她曾一直私下担心自己“不像我的同事那么聪明、那么有准备，也不像他们那么出色”。她最近出版了一本与该话题有关的书――《“皇后的新装”：战胜自我怀疑》(The Empress Has No Clothes)。
A new kind of psychological intervention is proving surprisingly powerful in combating these fears for students in middle school, high school or college. Drawing on decades of research, the interventions deliver 'persuasive yet stealthy' psychological messages to neutralize crippling anxieties and doubts, according to a 2011 research review authored by David Scott Yeager, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, and Gregory Walton, an assistant professor of psychology at Stanford University. Students who participate in the exercises post better grades, lower dropout rates and in some cases, better health and well-being for as long as three years.
一种新的心理干预方法在帮助初高中学生或大学生战胜此类恐惧方面显现出出奇的效果。戴维・斯科特・耶格尔(David Scott Yeager)与格雷戈里・沃尔顿(Gregory Walton)撰写的综述论文指出，该干预方法吸收了以往数十年的研究，传递出“有说服力又让人不知不觉的”心理信息来消除极其有害的焦虑感和质疑。耶格尔为得克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校(University of Texas at Austin)的心理学助理教授，沃尔顿则是斯坦福大学(Stanford University)的心理学助理教授。在长达三年的时间中，参与训练的学生取得了更优秀的成绩、退学率也更低，某些时候他们还更健康更快乐。
The exercises take aim at students' 'worries about whether they're respected, whether their teachers think they're dumb, whether they belong -- and precisely, briefly, without stigmatizing them or singling them out, give them messages that can remove those barriers,' Dr. Yeager says.
耶格尔称，这些训练针对学生们“对他们是否受到尊重、老师是否觉得他们愚笨以及他们是否属于所处环境的忧虑，而且在不让他们羞愧和不区别对待他们的情况下，精确并简要地向他们传达可清除那些障碍的信息。”
Students receiving the intervention may hear or see quotes and videos from similar students talking about how fears of not belonging on campus are normal at first -- and pass in time. Another message: Poor academic performance is normal at first in the transition to a new school, and students' grades typically improve as they adjust. Another common intervention teaches that intelligence isn't fixed: The brain can change and get stronger with practice and hard work.
受到心理干预的学生会听到或看到与自己相仿的学生所说的话或录制的视频，他们在视频中称一开始对“自己不属于校园”的恐惧是正常的，而且这会随着时间的流逝而消失。另一条信息是：在刚到新学校的过渡期内，一开始学习成绩不好也是正常的，在适应新学校后，成绩通常都会提高。另一项常见的心理干预则教导说智力不是固定不定的：大脑会变化，会随着锻炼和努力而变得更强大。
'We just re-direct their thinking,' Dr. Yeager says. 'They make all the tough decisions and exhibit the grit and tenacity to succeed.'
耶格尔说：“我们只是重新引导他们的想法，他们要自己做出所有艰难的决定和展示出成功的勇气和韧劲。”
The biggest effects are seen among disadvantaged groups. African-American college freshmen who participated in an exercise to ease fears that they didn't belong on campus posted sharply higher grades for three years, compared with controls. They also reported better health and well-being as seniors, according to a 2011 study in Science co-authored by Dr. Walton.
这些心理干预在弱势群体中的作用最大。沃尔顿与其他研究者共同发表于《科学》(Science)杂志的2011年的研究指出，与对照组相比，参与了缓和对“自己不属于校园”的恐惧训练的非裔美国大学新生三年间的成绩都大幅提高。另外，他们也表示自己在大四时更健康更快乐。
Female engineering students took part in another intervention designed to help them gain confidence; the exercise led them to post higher grades and form more friendships with male counterparts, according to the research, led by Dr. Walton.
在由沃尔顿主持的这项研究中，工程学系女生参与了另一项旨在帮助她们获得自信的心理干预。研究称，该训练促成她们取得了更好成绩并与更多男同学结为朋友。
Of course, researchers acknowledge that such messages could come off like a bad comedy skit if delivered poorly -- as 'a hollow, ego-boosting exercise' in empty self-praise that 'I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, 'people like me,' ' says the 2011 research review by Dr. Yeager and Dr. Walton, quoting the early 1990s 'Saturday Night Live' character Stuart Smalley.
当然，研究人员也承认，此类信息如果传递失当，结果就像是糟糕的喜剧小品。耶格尔与沃尔顿2011年的研究称，那就像空洞的自我赞扬中“虚伪的自我膨胀做法”，比如上世纪90年代初《周六夜现场》(Saturday Night Live)的人物斯图尔特・斯莫利(Stuart Smalley)所说的“我很棒，我很聪明，该死，‘大家都喜欢我’。”
But the interventions are administered carefully. Teachers follow a scripted introduction describing the project as an educational or research exercise. After seeing the messages on a computer, students are asked to write or record on video their own version of the messages to be read by future students. They aren't told they're receiving potentially helpful material, to prevent them from feeling stigmatized. Researchers measure the results by tracking their behavior and performance afterward.
但是，这些干预措施都是进行了细致管理的。教师要遵照事先写好的介绍材料，将项目描述为教育或研究活动。看到电脑上的信息后，学生们被要求写下或在视频中记录他们自己对信息的描述，以供以后的学生阅读。研究者未告知他们接收的是可能有帮助的材料，以免让他们觉得受侮辱。接下去，研究者会通过跟踪他们的行为和表现来衡量结果。
Proponents acknowledge that such exercises can't remove deep obstacles such as poverty or trauma, or enable students to thrive in a bad educational environment. But the results, which have been replicated many times, show that the obstacles facing disadvantaged groups are at least partly psychological and can be reduced. 'Academic performance is about 70% knowledge and studying, and 30% is the psychological piece,' says Valerie Purdie-Vaughns, an assistant professor of psychology at Columbia who has co-authored research on interventions.
该方法的支持者承认，此类训练不能扫除像贫穷或心理创伤这样的深层障碍，也不能让学生在糟糕的教育环境中获得成功。然而，这些已经多次得到验证的研究结果表明，弱势群体面临的障碍至少有一部分与心理相关，是可以减少的。哥伦比亚大学(Columbia)心理学助理教授瓦莱丽・珀迪・沃格恩斯(Valerie Purdie-Vaughns)称：“学业成绩70%与知识和学习有关，另外30%是心理因素。”沃格恩斯曾与他人共同撰写有关心理干预的研究论文。
Office workers can build on such insights to get imposter fears under control -- for instance, by talking with colleagues to see if their vision of their abilities is realistic. Support from colleagues who can provide a reality check is one of the best ways to combat imposter fears at work, says a 2012 study by researchers at the University of Alabama.
职场人士可借鉴此类见解来控制自己的“冒名顶替者恐惧”，比如和同事聊聊天，看看他们对自身能力的想象是否贴合实际。阿拉巴马大学(University of Alabama)研究人员2012年的一项研究指出，来自能提供现实检验的同事的支持是战胜职场中“冒名顶替者恐惧”的最佳方法之一。
For her part, Ms. Roche used a writing exercise. Whenever she faced a new job challenge, she poured out on paper all the emotions she was feeling. Reading this uncensored account helped her realize she was overreacting, she says. Then she wrote down her past accomplishments as evidence that she was capable of meeting the new challenge. 'This gave me the ability to put a little distance between my knee-jerk reaction and the hard data points, and ask myself, 'What's the reality here?'' she says.
在她自己的经历中，罗奇运用了将所有恐惧写下来的方式。每当她面临新的工作挑战，她就会在纸上一一写下她感觉到的所有情绪。她说，读读这些毫无保留的话会让她意识到自己反应过度。接下来她会写下自己过往的成就以表明她能够应对新挑战。她说：“这么做让我能在自己的下意识反应与确凿的数据之间创造一点儿距离，然后我问自己，‘实际情况怎么样？’”
The positive messages used in the interventions can work for many kinds of students. Khan Academy, a nonprofit online-learning organization, is testing the impact of embedding messages in its video lessons such as 'Your brain is like a muscle. The more you flex it, the more powerful it gets,' says Matt Wahl, a product manager for Khan. Preliminary research shows users perform better on problems that include the messages.
此类心理干预中的积极信息适用于多种类型的学生。非盈利网络学习机构Khan Academy的产品经理马特・沃尔(Matt Wahl)称，该学院测试了在视频教程中加入一些积极信息的影响，比如像“你的大脑就像肌肉组织，锻炼的越多，它就会变得越强大”这样的信息。初步的研究表明，使用者在包含该类信息的问题上表现得更出色。
Meanwhile, researchers are scaling up the interventions. A Stanford lab called PERTS has run them with 15,000 students at more than 100 middle and high schools and community colleges. An intervention with 2,572 students at Ivy Tech Community College, a statewide system in Indiana, led to a 0.35-point increase in average grades among disadvantaged students and a 10 percentage-point increase in their pass rates, says Ronald Sloan, a vice chancellor, academic affairs, in Muncie, Ind., for Ivy Tech. Two big universities have run interventions for incoming freshmen, halving dropout rates among some target groups.
与此同时，研究人员还加大了心理干预的规模。斯坦福大学一个名为PERTS的实验室对来自100多所初高中及社区大学的15,000名学生进行了干预。位于印第安纳曼西市的常春藤科技社区学院(Ivy Tech Community College)是一个遍及印第安纳全州的教育机构，该学院负责教务的副校长罗纳德・斯隆(Ronald Sloan)称，对学院2,572名学生的心理干预促使弱势学生的平均分数和及格率分别提高了0.35分和10%。有两所大型高校对入学新生进行了心理干预，使某些目标群体的退学率降低了一半。
Drawing on insights from the research, Stanford sent its 1,677 incoming freshmen a welcome video this fall in which graduating seniors discussed what they wished they had known when they arrived on campus, says Robert Urstein, Stanford's dean of freshmen. One student in the video reassured viewers that 'you're not the only one who is going through' high levels of stress.
斯坦福大学负责新生事务的主任罗伯特・厄斯坦(Robert Urstein)称，该校借鉴了这些研究的见解，于今年秋季向1,677名新生发送了一段欢迎视频，即将毕业的大四学生在视频中讨论了他们希望自己在刚入学时就能知道的事情。其中一名学生安抚道：“你不是唯一一个经历（高强度压力）的人。”
In the first week after it was sent, the video was viewed 10,000 times.
在这段视频发出后的第一周，它就被人观看了10,000次。