The Psychologist May 2010

psychologistthe

may 2010vol 23 no 5

What makes agood politician?Jo Silvester talks selection andtraining on the eve of the Election

feeling like a fraud 380can we salvage the concept of trauma? 386the puzzle of blushing 390methods: keeping it simple 398

£5 or free to members of The British Psychological Society

forum 362news 372

careers 426looking back 444

Incorporating Psychologist Appointments

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vol 23 no 5 may 2010

Managing Editor Jon SuttonAssistant EditorPeter Dillon-Hooper Production Mike Thompson Staff journalistChristian Jarrett AdvertisingSarah StaintonCarl BourtonEditorial Assistant Debbie James

The PsychologistPolicy CommitteePaul Redford (Chair),Nik Chmiel, OliviaCraig, Helen Galliard,Jeremy Horwood,David Lavallee,Catherine Loveday,Stephen McGlynn,Sheelagh Strawbridge,Henck van Bilsen,Peter Wright, andAssociate Editors

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© Copyright for all published material is heldby The British Psychological Society, unlessspecifically stated otherwise. Authors,illustrators and photographers may use theirown material elsewhere after publicationwithout permission. The Society asks that thefollowing note be included in any such use:‘First published in The Psychologist, vol. no. anddate. Published by The British PsychologicalSociety – see www.thepsychologist.org.uk.’ Asthe Society is a party to the Copyright LicensingAgency (CLA) agreement, articles in ThePsychologist may be photocopied by licensedinstitutional libraries for academic/teachingpurposes. No permission is required.Permission is required and a reasonable feecharged for commercial use of articles by athird party. Please apply to the Society inwriting. The publishers have endeavoured totrace the copyright holders of all illustrations inthis publication. If we have unwittingly infringedcopyright, we will be pleased, on being satisfiedas to the owner’s title, to pay an appropriate fee.

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psychologistthe

may 2010vol 23 no 5

What makes a goodpolitician?

Jo Silvester talks selection andperformance, on the eve of theGeneral Election 394

With the General Election almostupon us, we catch up with ProfessorJo Silvester to talk about her work inthe selection and development ofpoliticians. Professor Silvester isDirector of the OrganisationalPsychology Research Group at CityUniversity London, and she hassome timely insights into thesimilarities and differences betweenpolitics and other occupations.

At a time when we arebombarded with declarations ofcompetence by our prospectiveleaders, it is perhaps appropriatethat we also feature the impostorphenomenon: the sense that manyof us have that we are just ‘wingingit’. The author of that piece, DrChristian Jarrett, is certainly the realdeal: he recently won ‘Best blog –Psychology’ in the internationalResearch Blogging Awards for theSociety’s Research Digest blog, andour congratulations go to him.

Dr Jon Sutton (Managing Editor)

THE ISSUE

Feeling like a fraudChristian Jarrett examines thepsychology of the impostor phenomenon

Can we salvage the concept ofpsychological trauma?Richard J. McNally has some advice forthose revising the diagnostic manuals

The puzzle of blushingRay Crozier on an elusive phenomenonwith implications for understandingemotion, expression and social anxiety

Methods: Keeping it simpleChristopher Peterson and NansookPark on the lasting impact of minimallysufficient research

forum 362electronic record keeping; educational training; discrimination; and more

media 378

380

386

390

398

reflections on the recent ‘bullying helpline’ furore, from Cary Cooper

society 406President’s column; Research Digest award; the work of the Society’s PolicySupport Unit; new CRB check benefit for members; and more

426

380

390

a personal view on overthrowing collective impostor syndrome, from Sarah Dale;the light-bulb moment that led Jan Stannard into psychology; the latest jobs, andhow to advertise

looking back 444memories of working with the great Jean Piaget, from Joan Bliss

one on one 448…with Sheila Payne

news and digest 372fingerprints; Royal Society funding report; Milgram replication; politics andprogress; behavioural economics; and nuggets from the Research Digest

book reviews 402street prostitution; active listening; autism; history of neuroscience; self-awareness; and quantitative psychological research

careers

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We were delighted that our paper onelectronic records in the NHS (availablevia www.bps.org.uk/dcppubs) has createdsufficient interest to attractcorrespondence in The Psychologist(Forum, April 2010)

The thrust of Rowena Mattan’s letterwas that our paper seemed ‘to be sayingthat our best tactic is to adapt gracefullyto this new reality’ (her words), based onour comment about the introduction ofelectronic record systems: ‘Are we tooaccepting of what is happening? On thecontrary we think not… futuregenerations may well ask what all the fusswas about.’ Mattan’s primary concernsrelate to the impact of electronic recordson confidentiality, that these systems mayforce record-keeping practice against theway psychotherapy works and thatconsequently, psychologists ‘should makea fuss’.

To set the context, our paper waspublished (two years ago) so as to enableNHS clinical psychologists to be informedof developments in electronic recordsystems and to be prepared for theintroduction of such systems in theirservices. Our basic position was, andremains, that such systems will be widelyif not universally introduced in the NHS,

irrespective of the views of psychologistsor psychotherapists, and thatpractitioners must engage constructivelywith managers and system developers totry and ensure that such systems neitherdistort clinical practice nor compromisethe needs of patients. This will beparticularly important if, as is happening,systems are ‘paperless’.

To this end, our paper describedbriefly and referred to another (alsoavailable via www.bps.org.uk/dcppubs),which provides a systematic framework to enable psychologists and otherprofessionals in mental health services to assess and evaluate the systems beingintroduced or already in use in theirservices. It is intended that the use of theassessment scheme will ensure thatneither patient care nor professionalpractice is distorted as a consequence ofthe introduction of such systems. Further,the information it provides can be usedboth for staff education (about thefeatures of good clinical systems) and,more importantly, to support constructiveengagement with IT managers and systemdevelopers aimed at improving theclinical relevance of systems. The issue ofconfidentiality and effective controls forall sensitive patient materials, notes and

special documents such as completedpsychological test forms – bothparticularly pertinent to psychologicaland mental health services – are salientand central in both publications. Indeed,it is remarkable that our concerns seem to have been missed by Mattan and,contrary to her reading, we dorecommend ‘making a fuss’, albeit in theform of informed, consensual andconstructive engagement.

Mattan further criticises the paper byimplying that we accept that all of therecord will be shared. On the contrary, wepropose the introduction of a mechanism,an electronic ‘sealed envelope’ as part ofthe record, originally suggested by theNHS for the Summary Care Record. Thistakes the form of a ‘sealed’ section thatshould be available in the ElectronicClinical Record, the detailed record ofclinical care kept by those deliveringservices. Accompanying the ‘sealed’system would be controlled-accessprotocols to ensure protection forinformation deemed sensitive by theclient. Given that there are at least 14references to the notion of ‘sealing’ in thedocument, we can’t understand how evena cursory reading of the document couldfail to miss our concerns about, and

These pages are central to ThePsychologist’s role as a forumfor discussion and debate, andwe welcome your contributions.

Send e-mails marked ‘Letter for publication’ [email protected]; orwrite to the Leicester office.

Letters over 500 words are less likely tobe published. The editor reserves theright to edit or publish extracts fromletters. Letters to the editor are notnormally acknowledged, and space does

not permit the publication of every letterreceived. However, see www.thepsychologist.org.ukto contribute to our discussion forum(members only).

Pushing the electronic sealed envelope

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Stephen Lea discusses the roleof money in his interview(‘Scams, squirrels and drugmoney’, February 2010)saying that money is not just atool – as ‘lots of psychologicaltheories’ seem to suggest.Instead he suggests it is adrug, as ‘a lot of behaviourstowards money…are odd inmany ways’. If Professor Leahad broadened his research toinclude philosophy, whichused to be until recently a

joint pursuit withpsychology, he would havefound a rich and fruitfulsource pertaining to thedefinition and meaning ofmoney in society.

Karl Marx, philosopherand economist in the 19thcentury, analysed thefascinating complexity ofmoney, in greater detailthan perhaps anyone else, in his ‘theory of labour’(Economic and Philosophic

Manuscript of 1844). Heexplains that money derivesonly from human labour, it is

for most people the‘alienated ability ofmankind’. The profitderived by a companyboss from the labour ofits employees gives theformer an unparalleledfreedom: As Marx says:‘Money can turn one

thing into its opposite, if I am ugly, I can buy myselfthe most beautiful of women.Therefore I am not ugly, forthe effect of ugliness – its

Meaning of money

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suggested solutions to, the issues raisedby Mattan.

We are concerned too that Mattan’saccount of therapy professionals’behaviour in the world of paper records(e.g. maintaining confidentiality unlessthere is a risk issue), ignores the currentlegal state of affairs. Within the NHS,every piece of paper, and indeed everythought it contains, are the property ofthe Secretary of State, and subject topotential access by NHS employees or a Court Order. Electronic records makethis easier – one of the reasons for ourpapers and recommendations.Nevertheless, the issue of separaterecords for sensitive information, paperor electronic, is one that exercisespractitioners, psychologists as managersand non-psychologist managers, as wellas service clients. With paper records, itis easy to obfuscate. Electronic recordshave pushed the issues to the fore andthese are now being actively addressedby psychology service managers andothers in the Division of ClinicalPsychology. Whether or not an accepted,imposed or even no solution emerges,remains to be seen.Michael BergerDepartment of PsychologyRoyal Holloway, University of LondonAdrian Skinner Department of Clinical Psychology North Yorkshire & York PCT

The ‘shoulder shrug’ of religion

deterrent power – is nullifiedby money.’

This makes apparent howdeep and vital people’sfeelings and motivations inrelation to money – both forthose who have it and forthose who don’t – necessarilyare. Strikes are a case in point.So is the whole history oflabour struggles for an eight-hour day, paid holidays, etc.

Research into moneywithout exploring what itsorigins are, namely humanlabour, is likely to remainshallow and vague. Thosewho study it ought not toforget the old masters whohave done this over a centuryago.Greta SykesInstitute of Education, London

I would not dispute that‘religion is a powerfulhuman reality’ (SaraSavage, Careers, March2010), but that does notnecessarily make it a goodthing. Racism is a powerfulhuman reality too. Perhapswe need to confront thesocietal manifestations ofour superstitious naturerather than findingways to indulge them.

The claims for goodmade by the religiousare always immodestand unwarranted, theproper credit belongingto people. Theinnumerable harmsincluding paedophilepriests, 9/11, the spreadof AIDS in Africa andstopping theeradication of polio toname but a few outweighany conceivable advantage.

Savage cites Piaget’sidea that the first way weknow ourselves and theworld is through ourbodies; is it too much of

leap to suggest that wethen experience it throughour evolved minds? Theseare complete with manycompromises notspecifically aimed at ‘truth’– we have developed toolsto see further, that is whatscience is.

We are orbiting one of 200 billion stars in our

galaxy. We have notevolved to comprehendsuch vast size, but withimagination we can.Religion represents theultimate paucity ofimagination and offers no predictive or useful

explanation of anything.At best it is a solipsisticshrug of the shoulders.

We seem to beexpected to be ‘sensitive’and not point this out,allowing superstition andoppression to carry onalmost unchecked. I hopethat readers, trained asthey are in critical thought,

will not be fooled byattempts to allowexplanations (whichunderstandably seemedsatisfactory in theBronze Age) alongwith their institutionsbuilt by man to divideus and get in the wayof our capacity forprogress and wonder.

I would go so far as tosuggest that peopleconnected with psychologyshould not encourage therecourse to magic andfantasy in some misguidedattempt at ‘inclusiveness’. Niall ScottStoneStaffordshire

Hard-wired to see purpose in lifeI greeted Jesse Bering’s article on the‘nonexistent purpose of people’ (April)with mixed views. On the positive side, he draws attention to the evidence thathuman minds are biased towards seeingpurpose in their surroundings, and thatthis will lead to a natural tendencytowards creationist ideas – that there mustbe a purposeful God creating the complexworld we see before us. I believe it isimportant to be aware of this and work toaddress it, rather than to see it as a lack ofreasoning or something that would simplybe minimised by a scientific education.

On the negative side, I was surprisedthat Dr Bering regards evolution bynatural selection as purposeless. He seemsto be looking for purpose outside theorganism. But the sense of purpose iswithin the organism – its purpose acrossan evolutionary timescale is to survive andreproduce. This also applies to anindividual organism, human or animal.They have their own intrinsic purposes –for example to keep safe; to keep satiated;

to maintain proximity to conspecifics.There is no need to look to a creator, yetthere is purposefulness within people.

To many people the idea of ‘purpose’indicates some kind of homunculus that is not explained. However this is also notthe case. Purposeful cognitive systems canbe modelled mathematically usingnetworks of negative feedback loops, eachwith its own internal standard, or goal,that it seeks to achieve and maintainthrough the modification of behaviour.This is the essence of cybernetics, whichis incorporated into contemporary controltheories. Those interested in this blend ofpurposefulness and mechanism may wishto see demonstrations at www.pctweb.org.

Taken together, it is not surprising ifwe are hard-wired to see purposeeverywhere – it is part of life, and we don’tneed a belief in a grand creator toappreciate it. Warren MansellSchool of Psychological Sciences University of Manchester


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We write as first year traineeeducational psychologists froma variety of programmes inEngland. At the time ofwriting, we are currentlyunsure of whether we will beemployed this time next year.

Despite significant discussionbefore the restructuring of theeducational psychologytraining scheme from a one-year master’s course to a three-year doctorate in 2006, thereseems to be a widening gapbetween what was hoped forand what has been realised. By this we refer to the lack of planning, funding and thesubsequent uncertainty inwhich we currently findourselves.

While we are in a positionof excitement, enthusiasm andeagerness as we embark on thefirst stage of developingcareers as educationalpsychologists, our positionalso creates uncertainty, stressand frustration. Most traineesmust secure their own postsfor Years 2 and 3 with localauthorities, and it is clear thatthe national situation atpresent is patchy andincoherent to say the least –with some courses runningconsortia associated with local

authorities, whilst others have no allegiance to anysingle authority. With theadded pressure on councils tomake budget cuts due to thecurrent economic climate, oursurvey of principal educationalpsychologists indicates that thenumbers of available traineevacancies is likely to fallsignificantly from last year’slevels. Thisputs hugeamounts ofpressure ontrainees interms of jobprocurementandpossibilities ofrelocation, notto mention thefinancialpressure/loss ofworking rightsfor those whoare funded by abursary versusa salariedposition. We

hope that there will be enoughposts for all 120 or so Year 1candidates nationally tocontinue their training.

This is not the case forsimilar training courses; e.g.clinical psychology training,where the Strategic HealthAuthority funds trainees; oreducational psychologytraining in Scotland, Wales

Training for educational psychologists in

NOTICEBOARDI Through my work with learning-disabled male offenders I havecome to realise the significance ofeducation and knowledge to self-esteem and motivation to change.A year ago I developed a literacystrategy to enhance thecommunication skills of the clientswith whom I was working toimprove access to and outcomes of therapy. Presently I am workingjointly with a social anthropologistand consultant clinicalpsychologist to develop and teachan emotional literacy strategy forlearning-disabled offenders thataddresses the need to recognise,understand, communicate andpredict the consequences of ourown emotions and those of others.There is very little research andeven less resource in this area thatis appropriate for use withindividuals with varied offendingand psychiatric history; hence, I am interested in the work andviews of other mental healthprofessionals working withoffenders in a similar way.Theresa [email protected]

I Wanted: Spareneuropsychological tests forpsychologists in Colombia, LatinAmerica. Do you have a pastedition of a psychological test,maybe an orphaned stimulusbooklet or manual, one that’s tooworn out to be used regularly, orsimply one that’s going spare? Ourdepartment could make use ofthem for training, evaluation andtest development. Anythingconsidered. Vaughan [email protected]

Response from HarrietMartin, Chair of the Divisionof Educational Psychology(DECP): Currently all traineeeducational psychologists(TEPs) receive a bursaryduring their first year oftraining. In their second andthird years TEPs must apply tolocal authorities for positions.They are either employed andpaid a salary or remain a fulltime student and receive abursary. Fees for all three yearsare paid through the Children’sWorkforce DevelopmentCouncil (CWDC), which hasresponsibility foradministering the scheme andcommissioning training places.Funds to pay for the first-yearbursary and fees for all threeyears are raised by the CWDCthrough a voluntarysubscription scheme. All localauthorities are asked to pay asum linked to the number ofpupils in their schools. Local

authoritieshave becomeincreasingly unable and/orunwilling to pay theirsubscriptions. In the currentclimate of growing financialausterity they are also less ableto employ/provide a bursaryplacement for second and thirdyear TEPs.

The DECP, together withthe other key organisations,the Association of EducationalPsychologists (AEP) and theNational Association ofPrincipal EducationalPsychologists (NAPEP), are allextremely concerned about thecurrent situation. At a recentmeeting of the threeorganisations, who meetregularly, we all agreed thateducational psychology shouldbecome a fully doctorateprofession and that the onlyviable, long-term solution tothe funding difficulties is toestablish a centralised system.

The three organisations havealso all repeatedly pointed outthat the three-year doctorate isfunded centrally in Wales andNorthern Ireland and thatclinical psychologists intraining are funded centrallyand employed by strategichealth authorities.

The CWDC recognisesthese difficulties andinequities. It convenes the National Forum forEducational PsychologyTraining, where all interestedparties are represented,including TEPs and the BPS,and has recently managed a working party to look atsustainable funding solutionsfor educational psychologytraining. However despitereports from these groups,lobbying, in particular by theAEP, and continuingdiscussion, central government

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Steve Reicher is at the University of St Andrews. Alex Haslam is atthe University of Exeter. Share your views on this and other ‘realworld’ psychological issues – e-mail [email protected].

FORUM THE REAL WORLDAs we write this, the election has just been announced. As you readthis, the result will be imminent. You will be enduring an endlessstream of newsprint, of television debates, of opinion polls. Debatewill soon turn to whether the media influenced our opinionssignificantly and whether the polls measured our opinions accurately.

But perhaps these are the wrong questions to ask – aphenomenon that we cannot attribute to politicians and journalistswithout looking closer to home. Herbert Blumer famouslycomplained that we human scientists concentrate so exclusively onthe process of producing answers (hypothesis testing) that we almostentirely neglect the process of producing worthwhile questions(hypothesis generation). And, as the novelist Thomas Pynchonremarked in his Proverbs for Paranoids, if you get people asking thewrong questions, you don’t need to worry about the answers.

To explain what we mean, consider the leadership debates. Likethe election itself, these still lie in the future as we write. We can’tpredict how the candidates will perform, but we can confidentlypredict that the key question that will dominate the press over thefollowing days will be less about what Brown and Cameron said thanabout who came out on top. This is certainly true of the iconicNixon–Kennedy debates. All we recall now is how Nixon looked shiftysweaty and swarthy, how Kennedy looked young, vigorous and open,and how Kennedy won the day – even though those who only heardthe debate on radio as opposed to watching it on television adjudgedNixon the winner.

The point here is that what concerns us in such debates is not so much what we thought ourselves. It is rather what we think thatothers thought of them (which is not always the same as what othersdid think of them). In asking ‘who won’ we are dealing with meta-perceptions. And that matters, because in deciding what to think and – especially – what to do ourselves, we look to what other people,especially people like us, think and do. There is growing evidence, in a whole number of areas, that our sense of socially shared beliefsoften impacts on people as much, if not more, than their ownindividual beliefs. Indeed, Julie Duck, Debbie Terry, Joanne Smith and Mike Hogg have shown us that individual attitudes only predictbehaviour to the extent that one’s attitude reflects the perceivedgroup norm. To give but one example, research conducted before the 2003 Gulf War showed that most Americans opposed armedintervention, but that most Americans believed that the majoritysupported armed intervention. It was the latter rather than theformer which predicted their public actions.

Clearly, Fox News and its like must take much of the blame (or, if you are George Bush/Dick Cheney/Donald Rumsfeld, the credit) forthis. And there’s the rub. As recent research has established, massmedia may not change a single person’s individual attitude but stillhave a massive impact on social affairs by changing our sense ofwhat others think. This suggests that the question we ought to beasking after the election is not ‘did the media influence our opinions?’but rather ‘did the media influence our sense of social norms?’. Bythe same token, we might move from asking ‘did the polls accuratelymeasure our opinions?’ to ‘did the polls help form social norms?’.

That way, we might get a better understanding of what willhappen in the merry month of May. New questions for a new Britain.After all, this election is supposed to be all about change. Let us, aspsychologists, take that personally.

n England

(specifically the Departmentfor Children, Schools andFamilies) is still maintainingthat funding should comefrom individual localauthorities rather than from acentral pot. All organisationswill continue to press for anational scheme in whateverways they can, as they havedone since the doctoraltraining was first conceived.

The DECP recognises thatwith every passing year thesituation becomes moredifficult and that the stressplaced on TEPs by theuncertainty is not acceptable.It is partly because principaleducational psychologists have been trying very hard to ensure places for all TEPsthat the situation has becomeinconsistent. The same sumwill provide for two TEPs onbursaries compared to onesalaried position. Workingtogether regionally can cut the

number of applications andinterviews TEPs may need togo through. None of these inthemselves provide a long-term solution but are simplyways of trying to keep thecurrent, inadequate systemworking so that we cancontinue to train educationalpsychologists for the benefit of children and their families.

Despite everything,graduate psychologists stillwant to work as educationalpsychologists. The quality andenthusiasm of current traineesand those who have recentlyqualified are very great.Evidence that educationalpsychologists can and domake a difference is clear andgrowing. The DECP, togetherwith other organisations, willcontinue to do their best toensure a long-term,sustainable solution to thefunding of training.

and Northern Ireland, which is funded centrally. As thesegroups are funded by a centralgovernment scheme, we askwhy this is not the case foreducational psychologists inEngland? As an ageingprofession, 6 per cent of theworkforce is due to retire inthe next three years, thereforethere will clearly be a hugedemand for educationalpsychologists if localauthorities are to fulfil theirstatutory duties and trulyimprove outcomes for childrenand the people who care forand educate them. The currentsituation leads us to believethat this is not understood bycentral government, and thelack of agreement betweenprofessional organisations does not support our plight.

We propose a nationalscheme to fund educationalpsychology training inEngland, in which allgovernment, either central or local, would subscribe to

a single funding system that would not only morepositively support trainees, but would also benefit localauthorities by ensuring asteady stream of well-trainededucational psychologists forchildren’s services.

Surely the current system is highly flawed and unsustainable. Without a shared future in whichtraining courses, professionalorganisations, local authoritiesand central governmentunderstand that a review ofcurrent processes is neededurgently for effectiveeducational psychologytraining in England tocontinue, the road ahead forthose entering the professionmay be too uncertain to eventake the first steps.Trevor RichardsNorah Fry Research CentreUniversity of Bristoland 80 other trainee EPsignatories

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Send your entry (photocopies accepted) marked ‘prize crossword’, to the Leicester office (see inside front cover)deadline 7 june 2010. Winner of prize crossword no 50 Mary Cooper, Odcombe, Somerset

Teaching Psychology in HigherEducation, edited by Dominic Upton and

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‘This other Eden, demi-paradise’?My day job is in property and I am interested in the overlapwith psychology. Each spacewe find our self in cannot beignored, and where I live thereseems to be an increasing lackof it.

Developers in the UK have unique pressures. In eachsquare kilometre an average of 246 human beings fight forspace. In Australia the figure is2.6. The EuropeanCommission has predicted thatthe population of the UK willgrow from 61 million to 77million in the next 50 years.What does all this do to us?We fight over extensions,blocking out light and views,and even our gardens andplaying fields are seen aspotential building plots.

Population density inEngland is already higher thanany other country in Europe.It is highest in the South East,particularly areas incommuting distance of thecapital. As we leave for thedreaded journey to work eachmorning, we fight for space onroads, trains, buses and in carparks. One of the biggest testsof our sanity has to betravelling on theclaustrophobic LondonUnderground, where ourpersonal space is surrenderedentirely. Conditions are dirty,smelly and crowded. Lightingis sterile and our ears areabused with all kinds ofsounds. Phil Goodwin,Professor of Transport Policy,at the University of the West

of England, has said: ‘Theflight or fight hormones aretriggered, but we can’t doanything with them…so theyburn up our insides.’ Suzy

Dittmar, a cognitivebehavioural therapist andhypnotherapist, advisesstressed clients to imagine theyare enclosed in a blue egg with


a flexible shell that cannot bebroken as other commuterslean over, bump into andknock against them.

Travelling to work by busis often no better. Again spaceis at a premium. Commutingspaces are predominatelydesigned for function,cramming in as manypassengers as possible reignsover comfort or beauty.Windows are rarely cleanenough to see out of and oftensteamed up by the breath ofthe cattle enclosed. If wechoose to travel in our ownvehicles, we sit, in traffic;occasionally opening ourprivacy glass to inhale fumes,view roadside litter or ventanger. Our highways areconcrete-walled, fenced orlandscaped to inhibit our view.Metal barriers border centralreservations, bent byyesterday’s accidents,

reminding us of the horrorsthat can arise.

European research onpeople who commute morethan 45 minutes each waysuggests they suffer moreheadaches, aches, pains andan increased susceptibility toflu viruses. Consciously weusually manage to keep a lidon our frustrations; but at adeeper level we are screaming.Indeed, writing in the NewYork Times recently (seehttp://bit.ly/cGkRLX), DavidBrooks summarised the stateof happiness research bysaying ‘The daily activity mostinjurious to happiness iscommuting’.

I would be interested tohear from anyone with similarinterests or advice. Peter SearTheydon [email protected]


forum

1 Peers worried about almostcertain stress (8)

5 Graduates depressed with founderof humanistic psychology (6)

10 Mental characters in lament, forexample (7)

11 After time, angry reprimandmakes one weepy (7)

12 Eiser accepts how, in Tyneside, tobecome president (10)

13 It’s instrumental in alumnus’ OldEnglish (4)

14 We hear 19 in narrow passage (6)17 Do a type of psychology (6)19 51 close in one direction (6)20 & 30 One spotted the old lines in

explanation for sequence of events(6,6)

23 Instrument sounds lucrative! (4)24 See marbles lost? Put back

together (10)28 Get last words muddled – the

whole lot! (7)29 Attach little weight on 1320 yards

for one who made a shockingexperiment? (7)

30 See 2031 Without expurgation, brought

together around chief journalist (8)

1 Swiss psychologist making quietappeal about maturity (6)

2 One country missing from shorttests (5)

3 Loss making analyst mellow (9)4 Macho type in movies is horny

male with bad smell (5)6 Retentive article on gangster (4)7 Cerebral hemisphere failed to

pick up support at home (4,5)8 Footman in withdrawal

kerfuffle? (6)9 Under strain when picking up

sweets (8)15 Stress worked out with tie to

melancholic state (9)16 Wrongful acts keep men in

mental sufferings (8)18 Forced exercise on lines in short

farce (9)21 1 across shortly match

predicament (6)22 Appeared to perceive European

sea? (6)25 Transgression taking little time

for cognitive psychologist (5)26 Be head before the head – on

the head! (5)27 Quiet song or two (4)

I across I down

Vaughan Bell is a clinical psychologist working in an NHSneurorehabilitation service. Share your views on this and similar cross-cultural, interdisciplinary or otherwise ‘boundary related’issues – e-mail [email protected].

FORUM BEYOND BOUNDARIESIn 1995, the traffic in Bogotá, Colombia, was so chaotic that drivershad long since given up obeying the rules of the road, resulting in a disorderly free-for-all that was a major impediment to the city’seconomy. The recently elected mayor of the city, who came toprominence after dropping his trousers to silence a hall of riotingstudents, decided on a creative solution to this similarly vexingproblem: a troop of mimes (example pictured above).

Antana Mockus realised that the people of Bogotá were moreconcerned about social disapproval than traffic fines, and so hiredmimes to playfully reproach drivers that crossed red lights, blockedjunctions and ignored pedestrian crossings. One cannot police bymimes alone, and in a further measure to address drivingbehaviour, the mayor’s office brought in flashcards to allow socialfeedback. Each citizen was given a red card to signal to someonethat their driving was poor and a white card to signal that theperson who been particularly courteous or considerate.

When I tell British people this story, they seem mildly amusedby the mimes, but fall about laughing when I mention the cardscheme. It was, however, a great success both in terms of reducingtraffic violations and in changing the culture of Bogotá and wasbased on the best principles of social psychology. That is, we learncollegiate behaviour by social feedback and the best methods ofsocial feedback are the ones that cause the least personal offence.

The British are much more averse to this sort of overt socialengineering (it seems to evoke the “Oh, come off it!” responseidentified by anthropologist Kate Fox) although subtler methods are now being raised in the run-up to the elections. In late January,behavioural economist Richard Thaler and Tory Shadow ChancellorGeorge Osborne wrote an article for The Guardian, championingbehavioural economics as a way of altering citizens’ behaviourwithout mandating change. The idea is to take advantage of people’scognitive biases and social tendencies – for example, they cite thefact that people use less energy when they get feedback on howmuch they’re using in comparison to similar homes in the area.

Whether this turns out to be an election gimmick to appeal toscience literate voters or a genuine policy objective remains to beseen. Thaler was also involved in the Obama campaign whosimilarly touted behavioural economics as a policy measure,although the post-election reality has largely been business asusual.


376 vol 23 no 5 may 2010

Information, information,information. That’s the messagefrom one of the first studies tolook at people’s preferences fordifferent forms of advice.Reeshad Dalal and SilviaBonaccio presented studentswith fictional decision-makingscenarios, such as choosingwhich job to apply for. Thestudents were offered variouspermutations of advice andasked to say how satisfiedthey’d be if a friend had giventhem that advice. The differentkinds of advice were: whichoption to go for; which optionnot to go for; info on how tomake the decision (e.g. use a points allocation system);information on one or more of the options; and sympathyabout the difficulty of making a decision. Whilst all forms ofadvice were positively received,the students’ consistentpreference was for informationabout one or more of theoptions.

A second study spicedthings up by introducing morevaried decision-makingscenarios: where to locate anew store; how to lay off excessstaff; and how to invest someinheritance. A fresh batch ofstudents were asked to imaginethey’d solicited the advice froman expert, rather than a friend,to see if this made anydifference to their responses.Information again came out asthe most preferred form ofadvice. However, this timeround, specific advice on whichoption to go for was alsoparticularly well received,

How to give advice

In the May issue ofOrganizational Behavior andHuman Decision Processes

Child’s play! The developmentalroots of ‘psychology is easy’The widespread misconception that psychology is easy and mere common sense has its roots in the biased way that children work out whether a topic is challenging or not.

Frank Keil and colleagues asked children aged between five and thirteen, and adults, to ratethe difficulty of questions from physics (e.g. How does a spinning top stay upright?), chemistry,biology, psychology (e.g. Why is it hard to understand two people talking at once?) and economics.The questions had been carefully chosen from earlier pilot work in which they’d all been rated asequally difficult by adults.

Consistent with the pilot work, the adults in the study proper rated the questions from thedifferent disciplines as equally difficult. However, children from age 7 to 13 rated psychology aseasier than the natural sciences – physics, chemistry and biology, which they rated as equallydifficult.

Young children can’t possibly have the depth of understanding to know which scientificquestions are more difficult. Instead they must resort to some kind of mental short-cut to maketheir verdict. Keil’s team think that children’s feelings of control over their own psychologicalfaculties – memories, emotions and so forth – and the superficial familiarity of those kinds of

concepts, are likely to lead them to believepsychological concepts are easier tounderstand.

A second study provided this account withsome support. This time children and adultsrated the difficulty of questions from within thevarious branches of psychology. Similar to thefirst study, the children, but not the adults,rated questions related to social psychology,personality and emotions as progressivelyeasier, compared with questions related tocognition, perception and biological psychology,which they rated as progressively moredifficult.

So, when do these childish misconceptionsleak through into adult judgements? For a thirdstudy, another batch of children and adultswere again presented with the same questionsfrom the different scientific disciplines, but thistime they were asked to say whether theywould be able to solve each question on theirown (or require expert help) and to estimatewhat proportion of the adult population wouldknow the answers.

This time the adults as well as the childrentended to say they could solve more psychology

questions on their own, compared with questions in the other sciences, and kids and adultsestimated that more people knew the answers to the psychology questions. Remember these werepsychology questions that adults had already rated as just as difficult and complex as questions inthe other sciences. ‘Such biases [towards seeing psychology as easy] may be observed when tasksdo not so directly ask about difficulty of understanding and instead use measures such as ease oflearning on one’s own,’ the researchers said.

Keil’s team said their findings have real-life implications, for example in the court-room. ‘Ifpsychological phenomena are seen as usually quite easy to understand and largely self-evidentand if such judgements are inaccurate and underestimate the need for experts,’ they warned,‘cases might well be decided in ways that unfairly exclude valuable expert insights.’

In fact, the researchers pointed out that such situations have already occurred. In the US trialof former presidential assistant I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby, for example, the judge disallowed the useof psychology experts on memory, on the basis that the jury could rely on their common senseunderstanding of memory. This is particularly ironic given that prior psychology research hasshown that jurors and judges have a woefully poor understanding of how memory actually works.

The February issue of Journal of ExperimentalPsychology: General reports that children ratequestions from physics as harder than psychology

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digest

Using scare tactics for antidrink-driving and other healthissues makes intuitive sense.The campaigners want to grabyour attention and demonstratethe seriousness of theconsequences if their messageis not heeded. However, a newstudy makes the surprisingfinding that for a portion of thepopulation, scare tactics canbackfire, actually undermining amessage’s efficacy.

Steffen Nestler and BorisEgloff had 297 participants, 229of them female, average age 35,read one of two versions of afictional news report from aprofessional medical journal.The report referred to a studyshowing links between caffeineconsumption and a fictionalgastro-intestinal disease‘Xyelinenteritis’. One versionwas extra-scary, highlighting alink between Xyelinenteritis and

cancer and sayingthat the participant’sage group wasparticularlyvulnerable. Theother version waslower-key andlacked these twodetails. Both versions of thearticle concluded byrecommending that readersreduce their caffeineconsumption.

Before gauging theparticipants’ reaction to thearticle and its advice, theresearchers tested them on a measure of ‘cognitiveavoidance’. People who scorehighly on this personalitydimension respond to threatswith avoidance tactics such asdistracting themselves, denyingthe threat or persuadingthemselves that they aren’tvulnerable.

The material in this section is taken from the Society’s Research Digest blogat www.researchdigest.org.uk/blog, and is written by its editor Dr ChristianJarrett. Visit the blog for full coverage including references and links,additional current reports, an archive, comment and more.

We are delighted to announce that www.researchdigest.org.uk/blog has justbeen voted ‘Best blog – Psychology’ in the international Research BloggingAwards 2010. See www.tinyurl.com/digestwin and p.407 for more.

Subscribe by RSS or e-mail at www.researchdigest.org.uk/blogBecome a fan at www.facebook.com/researchdigestFollow the Digest editor at www.twitter.com/researchdigest

Scary messages can backfire

In the February issue of the Journal of Research in Personality

The key finding is thatparticipants who scored high on cognitive avoidance actuallyrated the threat fromXyelinenteritis as less severeafter reading the scary versionof the report compared with thelow-key version. Moreover, afterreading the scary version, theywere less impressed by theadvice to reduce caffeineconsumption and less likely tosay that they planned to reducetheir caffeine intake.

On the other hand, highlycognitive avoidant participantswere more responsive to thelow-key report than were thelow cognitive avoidantparticipants. In other words, for people who are cognitivelyavoidant, scary healthmessages can actually back-fire.

‘Practically, our resultssuggest that instead of giving all individuals the same threatcommunications, messagesshould be given that areconcordant with their individualcharacteristics,’ Nestler andEgloff said. ‘Thus, the presentfindings are in line with thegrowing literature on tailoringintentions to individualcharacteristics, and theyhighlight the role of individualdifferences when scarymessages are used.’

especially in the investmentscenario.

The researchers said pastresearch on advice giving hastended to focus purely on advicein the form of ‘I recommendoption X’, so this study makes a novel contribution. ‘Across thesituational and dispositionalvariables we examined,decision-makers appeared towant their advisors to provideinformation about thealternatives,’ the researcherssaid. Advice that says ‘go foroption X’ can also be well-received but only in specificcircumstances, such as whenadvice has been explicitlysolicited from an expert.

When it comes to lessonsfor real life, Dalal and Bonacciosaid more research was neededto see how their resultsgeneralise, but in the meantimethey advised: ‘Individuals whoare advising decision-makersshould at the very least becareful to provide informationalong with theirrecommendations.

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case, the ‘aftershock media quake’ wasmuch more positively focused, with themedia becoming interested in some of thecritical issues of bullying, like ‘was ahelpline needed in the field’, ‘what is theextent of the problem of bullying in theworkplace’, ‘how do we make sure thatthis issue is dealt with by seniormanagement’, etc. On this occasion,therefore, the media moved from thepolitical to the substantive issues, whichwas more in my comfort zone.

I guess I have learned a number ofthings from this episode. First, if one isengaged in working with the media tohighlight psychological or sociallyrelevant issues, you have to be preparedfor negative as well as positive publicity,and potentially for its political fallout aswell. Second, if you are a ‘media visible’academic or practising psychologist, you

also have to be prepared,from time to time, to copewith negative personalattributions of yourmotives: for example, thatyou are saying that to getpersonal exposure orcelebrity status, or you areusing your science forpolitical ends.

This is the downside of any media exposure.However, I believe it isimportant for the academiccommunity tocommunicate our scienceor practitioner-orientatedexperiences to a widerpublic, highlighting itsrelevance to everyday life.

It is also important forpsychologists who give back to thecommunity by supporting relevantcharities, to ensure that the bond of trustwith clients, patients and others is notbreached, and that confidentiality ismaintained at all costs. Henry DavidThoreau wrote in 1853: ‘how prompt weare to satisfy the hunger and thirst of ourbodies; how slow to satisfy the hungerand thirst of our souls’. This is one of thechallenges of psychologists today, to helpand support people to satisfy the hungerand thirst of their collective souls. But wecan only do this if we can maintain theirtrust.

378 vol 23 no 5 may 2010

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In February a story broke in themainstream media about the allegation

that several people from 10 DowningStreet had called a bullying helpline foradvice. This revelation appeared only afew weeks after a political journalist hadpublished a book alleging that there was a more than robust management stylepresent in No. 10 – followed by theLabour leadership strongly denying theseallegations. The head of the bullyinghelpline then revealed to the media that a number of people working in No. 10had called the confidential service,seeking support and advice. Although shedid not reveal the names of the allegedcallers, she did reveal the employer, inthis case No. 10 itself.

As one of the Patrons of this bullyinghelpline, I was contacted by the mediaabout it. The minute I heard what hadhappened on the Sunday night from aBBC correspondent, I contacted thedirector of the helpline to find out whatshe had told the media. She told me thatshe had told them that the helpline hadreceived a number of calls from peopleworking in No. 10, emphasising howeverthat no names of the actual callers wererevealed. Because of the breach ofconfidentiality by naming the employer ofthe callers, I resigned immediately. OtherPatrons took a similar decision later inthe day.

The Press Association picked up on the story which triggered a mediaonslaught, with the main TV newsnetworks, radio stations, online newsagencies and newspapers calling me overa ten-hour period! Although I was not aTrustee and had no legal responsibility forthe helpline, I felt I had a duty to explainmy actions to the media, so I tried to

cooperate as much as possible with their requests.

The reason I resigned was quitesimple: there is a fundamental andexplicit undertaking that a helpline isconfidential, and nothing said duringsuch a call should ever be revealed, eitherabout theindividual, theemployer orabout anybodyelse. This was anissue of principle,and not apoliticallymotivated act.

On the daythe story broke, I was lucky tohave the totalsupport of thepress office at myuniversity, whotook me in handand managed theinterviews,which carried onthroughout theday, until some other story overtook it.Although I normally can deal with themedia on topics in my area of expertise, I found this experience much morestressful because of the political asopposed to the academic context of thestory. When a political issue is involved,the news media first report the bareheadline facts, but then tend to developor broaden it in very different ways,nuancing its political implications forexample. As it happened, the story didnot die on that day but was re-invigoratedtwo days later when the helpline wassuspended. However, in this particular

cont

ribu

te This is the page of the Society’sMedia and Press Committee,which aims to promote anddiscuss psychology in the media.

If you would like to comment ona recent newspaper article, TV or radio programme involvingpsychology, if you have tips for

others based on experiences, orif you know of a forthcomingprogramme or broadcast, pleasecontact the ‘Media’ page

coordinating editor, Fiona Jones(Chair of the Society’s Media andPress Committee), [email protected]

At the eye of the stormCary L. Cooper gives some personal reflections

Cary L. Cooper CBE is Professor of Organizational Psychology andHealth at Lancaster University


seek and advertise at www.psychapp.co.uk 443

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Dr James Barry had a remarkablecareer. A pioneering militarysurgeon of the British army, he was

stationed all over the world, includingSaint Helena, where he attended briefly to Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Crimea,where he encountered Florence

Nightingale. It was only when Barry diedthat her womanhood was revealed. Barryhad lived as an impostor – a womanmasquerading as a man – probably as away to follow a career closed to women.As Nightingale observed in Cassandra: ‘A woman cannot live in the light ofintellect. Society forbids it.’

Fast forward 100 years to the 1970sand it was no longer so unusual forprofessional positions to be filled bywomen. Social progress, perhaps, but the weight of so many years of sexualdiscrimination wasn’t easy to shrug off.Writing at the time, two clinicalpsychologists – Dr Pauline Clance and Dr Suzanne Imes – described interviewsthey’d conducted with 150 highlysuccessful women who ‘despite theirearned degrees, scholastic honours, highachievement...praise and professionalrecognition’ reported feeling no internalsense of success and consideredthemselves to be impostors. Clance andImes christened this complex the‘impostor phenomenon’ (IP).

Although not recognised as a formalpsychiatric condition, the impostor ideahas inspired numerous studies and,judging by its repeated appearance in thecareers pages of prestigious publications,it continues to resonate powerfully. In2009 Nature ran a career piece about thephenomenon, citing the example of twoleading female scientists who still fearbeing found out. It followed a similarScience career article from 2008 entitled‘No, you’re not an impostor’.

Psychologists are particularly prone,according to Susan Pinker in her bookThe Sexual Paradox. She cites a 1984study by Margaret Gibbs and colleaguesof randomly selected Americanpsychologists that found 69 per cent ofthem felt like impostors.

The phenomenonAccording to Clance and Imes’ seminalpaper, there are three defining features ofimpostorism. The first is a feeling thatother people have an inflated perception ofyour abilities. Second is a fear that yourtrue abilities will be found out, and third isa persistent tendency to attribute successesto external factors, such as luck ordisproportionate effort. The condition isparticularly likely to strike when a personstarts a new job or takes on newresponsibilities. Ironically, the feeling thatone is a fraud can inspire greater effort andconscientiousness thus leading to moresuccess and promotion, thereby triggeringanother round of impostor feelings.

Impostorism is related to and overlapswith several other manifestations of self-doubt including self-handicapping, inwhich an individual sabotages their ownperformance so as to provide a ready-made excuse for failure; and defensivepessimism, which involves takingextensive measures to try to avoidexpected failure. In a survey of over 400 people, Shaun Cowman and JosephFerrari found that those who self-handicapped were also more likely toscore high on a measure of the impostorphenomenon (see ‘Measuringimpostorism’).

The backgroundClance and Imes’s seminal paper appearedat the tail end of an era of United Statessocial history recognised as the secondwave of feminism. The so-called ‘Hornereffect’, referring to women’s apparent fearof success, had been introduced a decadeearlier in an article for Psychology Todaymagazine. Matina Horner described how,

380 vol 23 no 5 may 2010

Feeling like a fraudChristian Jarrett examines the psychology of the impostor phenomenon

FEAT

URE

Burton, S. (2000). Impostors: Six kinds ofliar. London: Viking.

Clance, P.R. (1985). The impostorphenomenon. Atlanta: Peachtree.

Clance, P.R., Dingman, D., Reviere, S.L. &Stober, D.R. (1995). Impostorphenomenon in an interpersonal/social context: Origins and treatment.Women and Therapy, 16, 79–96.

Clance, P.R. & Imes, S. (1978). Theimpostor phenomenon in high

achieving women: Dynamics andtherapeutic intervention.Psychotherapy: Theory, Research andPractice, 15, 241–247.

Cowman, S.E. & Ferrari, J.R. (2002). ‘Am Ifor real?’ Predicting impostortendencies from self-handicappingand affective components. SocialBehaviour and Personality, 30,119–125.

Horner, M.S. (1968). Sex differences in

achievement motivation andperformance in competitive and non-competitive situations. Unpublisheddoctoral dissertation, University ofMichigan.

Horner, M.S. (1969). Fail: Bright women.Psychology Today, 62, 36–38.

Kaplan, K. (2009). Unmasking theimpostor. Nature, 459, 468–469.

Laursen, L. (2008). No, you’re not animpostor. Science, 15 February

[http://bit.ly/3YeYE7]. Leary, M.R., Orlando, A.E. & Funk, W.W.

(2000). The impostor phenomenon:Self-perceptions, reflected appraisals,and interpersonal strategies. Journalof Personality, 68, 725–756.

McElwee, R.O. & Yurak, T.J. (2007).Feeling versus acting like animpostor: Real feelings offraudulence or self-presentation?Individual Differences Research, 5,

refe

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Dr James Barry (left) with her servant and her dog Psyche

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as part of her doctoralresearch, she’d asked male andfemale participants to write astory in response to the cue‘John (or Anne) finds herselfat the top of her medicalschool class’. Horner reportedhigher rates of negativeimagery in the stories writtenby women about Anne’ssuccess when compared withmen’s stories about John’ssuccess, and she concludedthat this was evidence thatwomen feared success.

It was around the timethat Clance was working aslecturer and clinician atOberlin College in Ohio, thefirst coeducational college inthe United States, when sherealised the feelings ofimpostorism she’dexperienced as a student werecommon among her femalestudents at Oberlin. ‘I wasvery interested in and activein the Feminist movement atthat time,’ says Clance. ‘AtOberlin I helped put on aconference on “brave newwomen” and there was aconsciousness about thesecond-class citizenship ofwomen, even at Oberlin. There were very few women faculty professors.’

‘I noticed that my students were fullof doubt about their abilities and worriedabout continuing their successes,’ shesays. ‘For example, saying “I am afraid”and “this time I will blow the exam”, yetwhen I asked them, they had never blownan exam. In fact, their SAT scores andgrades were excellent. One of them saidto me, “I feel like an impostor here withall these bright people”.’

Clance compared observations withher colleague Suzanne Imes and the pairwent on to interview dozens of women,professionals as well as students, abouttheir experiences of the impostorphenomenon. These were women who

had achieved success but found ituncomfortable, fearing that they’d arrivedthere by mistake or through luck. ‘At firstwe wrote the article thinking it wasmainly women who were affected by IP,because at that time, although I wasseeing equal numbers of men and womenin the counselling centre, it was womenwho would bring this issue up far more,’says Clance. ‘However, later on when Istarted talking widely about IP, the malefaculty would often say they’dexperienced it, and yet I don’t think itwas affecting them as much.’

Today the condition has lost many of its feminist undertones and subsequentresearch has suggested that men can be asprone or even more prone to impostor

feelings as women. In a 1985 survey ofacademics, for example, Mary Toppingand Ellen Kimmel reported higher scoresof impostorism among male staffcompared with females. ‘I’ve certainlyseen men who have experienced IP,’Clance says. ‘For example, I saw a man in the corporate world who’d come in forrelationship problems, but what came outwas that he had a tremendous fear offailure in almost every area; a tremendousfear of somehow not looking or beingcompetent. He wanted to be totally liked,even by the cab driver.’

Although the social climate hasevolved since the early accounts of theimpostor phenomenon, Dr Valerie Young,another self-confessed sufferer of the


feature

Measuring impostorismThe Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale (CIPS) waspublished in Pauline Clance’s book in 1985 and continuesto be the scale of choice for many researchersinvestigating IP. The scale consists of 20 items, scoredfrom one to five (from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘stronglydisagree’), and factor analyses suggest that it comprisesthree subscales: Fake, Discount and Luck, which tap intothe different components of IP.

The Fake subscale (e.g. ‘I’m afraid people importantto me may find out that I am not as capable as they thinkI am’) measures feelings of incompetence and belief inother people’s inflated perceptions. The Discountsubscale (e.g. ‘If I receive a great deal of praise andrecognition for something I’ve accomplished, I tend todiscount the importance of what I have done’) measuresthe tendency to ignore objective evidence and praise forone’s ability. And finally, the Luck subscale (e.g. ‘Attimes, I feel my success has been due to some kind ofluck’) measures the tendency to externalise the reasonsfor one’s success, in terms of luck or circumstance.

Other measures of impostorism have also beendeveloped. Mark Leary and colleagues, who presentedevidence in 2000 that IP is a self-presentational strategy,formulated their own seven-item scale focused on thefraudulent component of IP. Example items include ‘I tend to feel like a phony’ and ‘Sometimes I am afraidthat I will be discovered for who I really am’.

201–220.McElwee, R.O. & Yurak, T.J. (in press).

The phenomenology of the impostorphenomenon. Individual DifferencesResearch.

Oleson, K.C., Poehlmann, K.M., Yost, J.H.,et al (2000). Subjectiveoverachievement: Individualdifferences in self-doubt and concernwith performance. Journal ofPersonality, 68, 491–524.

Pinker, S. (2008). The sexual paradox. NewYork: Scribner.

Sonnak, C. & Towell, T. (2001). Theimpostor phenomenon in Britishuniversity students: Relationshipsbetween self-esteem, mental health,parental rearing style andsocioeconomic status. Personality andIndividual Differences, 31, 863–874.

Swann, W.B., Stein-Seroussi, A. & Giesler,R.B. (1992). Why people self-verify.

Journal of Personality and SocialPsychology, 62, 392–401.

Topping, M.E. & Kimmel, E.B. (1985). Theimpostor phenomenon: Feelingphony. Academic Psychology Bulletin,7, 213–226.

Want, J. & Kleitman, S. (2006). Imposterphenomenon and self-handicapping:Links with parenting styles and self-confidence. Personality and IndividualDifferences, 40, 961–971.


phenomenon, says IP remains asrelevant as ever. She’s the founder ofwww.impostorsyndrome.com and runsworkshops on impostorism in theUnited States for major organisationslike Boeing and Harvard University.‘Yes, things have changed for youngerwomen, but there are at least 10 othergroups that are particularly susceptibleto these feelings,’ she says. ‘While anundergraduate majoring in Englishliterature or art may not feel like afraud, once she (or he) gets tograduate school these feelings canemerge due to the culture. Similarly,attending school or working inanother country, being a first-generation professional, or being oneof the first or the few in a field are allexperiences that do not change withthe era.’

Possible causesIn the mid-1990s Clance and hercolleagues argued that the impostorphenomenon can be fostered in a childby parents who selectively value certainaspects of that child, such as herattractiveness and sociability, whilstundervaluing others, such as herintelligence. The idea is that the childraised this way builds a self-conceptaround the characteristics valued by herparents and later resists attributing hersuccesses to virtues (such as highintelligence) that don’t fit with thisparentally defined self-concept. Clance’steam further argued that, for women,societal expectations about gender rolescan exacerbate the situation. By thisaccount, a woman might see her careersuccess as a consequence not of herintellect but of her ability to charm, so as to conform to her self-concept and to be consistent with cultural normssurrounding femininity.

These ideas have found support inrecent research findings. In a survey ofBritish university students, for example,Carina Sonnak and Tony Towell foundthat students who said their parents weremore controlling and protective alsotended to score higher on a measure ofimpostorism. Similarly, a 2006 survey inAustralia by Julie Want and SabinaKleitman of a broad range ofprofessionals, from doctors to smallbusiness owners, found that higher scoreson an impostor scale were associated withreports of an overprotective father – anassociation that was offset if the fatherwas also seen as providing emotionalwarmth.

‘We can only speculate at this stage,’says Kleitman, ‘but it’s probable that a

warm and responsive parent would foster an experience-rich environmentthat encourages self-exploration, whereparental feedback (either positive ornegative) would be interpreted as beinghelpful and non-threatening for theformation of healthy self-beliefs. Incontrast, an overprotective parent limitsthe types of experiences that their child is allowed to engage in, as well asencourages their child to reflect on themin a less positive way. In other words, thechild of an overprotective and criticalparent may attribute his or her success to parental involvement or chance, ratherthan to their own achievements resultingfrom their own talents and efforts.’

Feigning fraudulenceWhilst the onward march of the impostorphenomenon shows no signs of stopping,two little-known articles published in thelast decade have challenged key aspects ofthe impostor construct. They suggest thecomplex may be construed moreaccurately as a presentational strategy – away for a person to downplay expectationsand feign modesty.

The first of these articles waspublished by Mark Leary and colleaguesat Wake Forest University in 2000. Theysaw the impostor phenomenon assomething of an enigma: most of us haveinflated views of our own abilities andlike to create the best possible impression,so why should these ubiquitous human

traits be missing in people with IP?However, the mystery weakened whenthey showed that people with theimpostor phenomenon could, in effect,merely be pretending to be impostors.

An initial experiment showed thatalthough high scorers on an impostorscale rated themselves poorly (as you’dexpect) on factors like intelligence andappearance, they also said they thoughtother people would rate them equallypoorly. This appears to undermine one of the cardinal tenets of the impostorcomplex – the fraudulent aspect – whichrefers to the impostor’s belief that otherpeople rate their abilities too highly.

Two subsequent experiments alsoseemed to further undermine theimpostor phenomenon, at least asidentified using questionnaires. Leary’steam found that high scorers onimpostorism behaved as you’d expectwhen they thought their opinions werepublic, but behaved rather differentlywhen they thought their opinions wereprivate. For example, asked in public,high scorers on an impostorism scalepredicted that they would do poorly on a fictional psychology test invented by the researchers, but when asked inprivate, their performance expectationsmatched those of participants who scoredlow in impostorism.

Rory McElwee and Tricia Yurak atRowan University built on these findingswith a study of their own published in2007. They replicated Leary’s finding that

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Higher scores on an impostor scale were associated with reports of an overprotective father


the majority of impostors (defined bytheir high score on an impostor scale)thought other people would rate them as lowly as they rated themselves. Bysplitting their sample, McElwee andYurak further showed that the few ‘true’impostors (who did predict others wouldrate them too high) and the remaining‘strategic’ impostors were equallyconcerned with self-presentation. ‘If trueimpostors did not use self-presentationalstrategies as much as strategic impostorsdid, this would have be consistent withthe notion that true impostors are morereliably expressing their actual feelings,’McElwee explains. ‘As the results showed,however, true versus strategic impostorsdid not reliably differ on self-presentationstrategies.’

A state rather than a trait?So do these new findings mean there is nosuch thing as an impostor phenomenon?Valerie Young doesn’t think so. She’s alwaysbelieved that there are two sides to theimpostor story. ‘There is a little voice in allof us that, however small and weak,believes we are smart, that we can do it,’she says. ‘It’s just that when we know thatour work – and therefore “we” – will bejudged, we start to second guess ourselvesand our louder and more insistentimpostor voice drowns out any semblanceof self-assurance. “Maybe I’m really notthat smart… maybe I really won’t do thatwell.” Whether it’s a face-saving strategy orsecond guessing, I’ve worked with enoughpeople who are truly suffering from theimpostor syndrome to know they are notjust “pretending” to feel like frauds.’

Clance agrees. ‘People with IP dowant to be smart, to look smart, and theysometimes feel as if they are,’ she says. ‘It’snot that the impostor feelings are there allthe time. In terms of self-presentation, thebiggest disagreement I have [with these newfindings] is that I don’tthink they’re probablylooking at thecontinuum of feelings. Inmy work, if people scoreabove 60, then they’rehaving the kind offeelings that can interferewith them, for example, taking apromotion or going after something thatthey have the skill set to do, but they’reafraid they can’t.’

‘The other thing,’ Clance adds, ‘is thatthese self-presentation papers don’t lookat whether their participants really aresuccessful. In all my early work, we usedoutside criteria to be sure that the personwas really able and competent.’

McElwee agrees thatthere’s little doubt somepeople do sometimes feel likea fraud. Her specific concernsare with what the impostorscales are really measuringand with the idea that theimpostor phenomenon is atrait, when in reality it mightbe better construed as a state.‘I think they [the impostorscales] are measuring acombination of low self-esteem, negative affect, and a desire to lower others’expectations for the self,’ she says. ‘I do not think they validly measure actualimpostor feelings, or at leastthey do not measure suchfeelings purely enough to beof any use for identifying so-called impostors – and that is the case not only because of the scale but also because I think the whole concept ofthis as a personality variableis flawed.’

Helping people withimpostorismState or trait, and whetherthere is a self-presentationalcomponent to impostorism ornot, all the experts appear toagree that people dosometimes experienceirrational feelings ofincompetence, and that this isan unpleasant state, which inthe worst situations can leadto lost opportunities. So what is the latestadvice on how to overcome these feelings?

Young’s top three tips for helpingother people with IP are: ‘normalise the

feeling – there are tenperfectly good reasonswhy someone shouldfeel like a fraud,’ shesays; ‘help clientsunderstand theirattitudes toward/definitions of

competence and failure,and help them to shift

these; and explore other reasons theymight be ambivalent about success – whatoften feels like fear and self-doubt is infact, an awareness of the other side ofsuccess.’

Clance says that for some people, just finding out that the phenomenonexists and that other people have thesefears, is beneficial. ‘Reading about it,hearing about it, talking about, especially

at workshops with other peopleexperiencing IP, helps them begin toidentify the symptoms.’ Clance adds thatin her self-help book, published in the1980s, she talks about beginning to noticewhat happens when you receive praise;the way that people with high IP tend tocompare their weaknesses with otherpeople’s strengths, and how they’ll look at things they’ve had difficulty with,compare with other people and assumethat they’ve done it with ease, when reallythey can’t know that – the other personmight be struggling just as much as themor more. ‘Anyone who’d like to use mymaterial to run a workshop, I’m happy for them to do that. I want them to workwith it,’ she says, her passion for IP stillevident three decades after that influentialpaper.


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What doesimpostorism feel like? Common sense suggests that believing otherpeople hold positive beliefs about you ought to be a rewarding feeling. But there’s a body of researchon self-verification, much of it conducted byWilliam Swann, that shows it is more important topeople to feel they have been accurately perceivedthan to be perceived positively. This is consonantwith a recent investigation into what it feels like tohave impostor feelings – to feel as though anotherperson has an inflated view of your abilities. RoryMcElwee and Tricia Yurak asked 122 studentparticipants to recall a time in their past whenthey’d been in a situation in which they believedanother person had an exaggerated view of theirabilities. In their descriptions of these situations,the students listed a combined total of 46 affectiveresponses, 41 of which were negative, includingfeeling anxious, embarrassed, under pressure andworried about failure. Moreover, all the studentsreported wanting to correct the misapprehension,24 per cent of them ‘quite a lot’ or ‘extremely’.Students who scored higher on impostorphenomenon scales tended to report finding theremembered situation more distressing and to feelmore distressed by recalling it, and they alsotended to express a stronger desire to correct themisapprehension. ‘Intuition might suggest thatbeing viewed positively by others would always bedesirable and satisfying,’ McElwee and Yurakwrite. ‘However, our data showed instead thatnegative affect is a common reaction to feelingone’s abilities are being overestimated.’

I Dr Christian Jarrett is The Psychologist’sstaff [email protected]

“just finding out that thephenomenon exists andthat other people havethese fears, is beneficial”


Government about how local councillorscan be supported in their roles, drawingon existing research and practice onlearning and development and workdesign. We created development centresfor senior politicians based onpsychological principles of assessment,and I’ve spent the past four years running360° feedback for politicians from allthree main parties. This has allowed us to map the main development needs forpoliticians and develop an understandingof how political leadership differs fromleadership in other contexts (Silvester &Dykes, 2008).

It’s true that political parties rarelychange their selection processes – but inthe case of the Conservative Party, andlater the Liberal Democrat Party, therewas a perceived need and a desire to drawon best practice from other sectors.Political parties are slow to change – andworking to adapt selection practices takesa long time because it is necessary toinvolve a whole range of stakeholders,including the Parliamentary party, thevoluntary side, party agents, campaignteams, and prospective Parliamentarycandidates. This is quite different fromother types of organisations wheredecisions can be made by a small group of people. Organisational psychologistsare experts at designing selection systemsand understanding all types of work.Although very little attention has beenpaid to political ‘jobs’, there was noreason not to apply similar practices topolitical roles.

So do psychologists know what makesa good MP?As far as I’m aware there are only ahandful of organisational psychologistswho are studying this, and we are reallyonly beginning to develop theunderstanding that will allow us toanswer this question fully. Comparedwith the many thousands of papers aboutbusiness leadership, political leadershiphas been largely ignored. In fact there areonly three published papers on individualdifferences and political performance.

Yet, implicit in the design of anyselection process is the assumption thatyou are identifying those individuals withthe best capability of performing the role.This means understanding both what therole entails (responsibilities and tasks)and what individual qualities are requiredto perform it well. When I first met withthe Conservatives I remember askingwhat they were looking for – what wastheir vision of a good and poor MP? Itquickly became clear that this was notsomething that had been addressed – infact the question seems to be missing

You’ve conducted a lot of researchinto the selection process for MPs,

and helped ensure that major politicalparties are putting the right mix infront of the public at the pollingstations. Do you have faith in thesystem now?There’s still a long way to go. I thinkwe’ve made a good start in beginning tolook more systematically at the qualitiesrequired by MPs, and by helping to createrobust, objective and transparent selectionprocesses. But a bigger question is whatdo we mean by the ‘rightmix’? Are we interested inwho the politicians are orwhat they bring to therole? Does it matterwhether they come fromparticular groups or are wemore interested in whetherthey are capable ofperforming the role well?And what do we mean bybeing an ‘effective MP? Youcan see that there are quitea few interestingchallenges. Psychologistshave ignored the work ofpoliticians, so we are onlyat the beginning of beingable to answer some ofthese questions.

It wasn’t until 1867 thatmen who didn’t own landcould become MPs, andeven modern politicalparties rarely changetheir selection processes.Why do you think theystarted to turn topsychologists such as yourself?I got involved in politics by accident. I presented a paper on selection anddiversity at the BPS Centenary Conferencein 2001, which was reported in thenational media. Christina Dykes, who was the Director of Candidates andDevelopment at the Conservative Party,read about this and wrote to me asking

whether I would be able to help identifyways to increase the number of womenand minority candidates being selected.The letter changed my whole researchfocus – I’ve spent the last 10 yearsstudying politicians at local and nationallevel, the work that they do, and thequalities they need to be effective. Most of this has also involved explaining anddemonstrating what organisationalpsychologists can offer.

Politicians and government personneldon’t naturally turn to psychologists –

they simply don’t know what we can offer.The real privilege has been to work withpoliticians from all parties, understandcore needs and use psychologicalknowledge to design practical solutions.In doing so it has been possible to showthat psychological approaches are useful.For example, I wrote a report for theDepartment of Communities and Local

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What makes a goodpolitician? Jo Silvester talks to Jon Sutton on the eve of the General Election

Professor Jo Silvester, Professor of OrganisationalPsychology, Director, Centre for Performance at WorkCity University London. [email protected]/performanceatwork

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from academic research too. As a result I went through a process of capturingshared beliefs about good and poorpolitical performance by interviewingindividuals from all stakeholder groups inorder to create a competency frameworkand behavioural indicators that could beused as selection criteria. This also meantpresenting the results plus findings from a review of the old system to a seniorparty committee. I then got the go-aheadto develop an assessment centre, whichinvolved different exercises relating to thevarious aspects of the MP role, and totrain MPs and members of the voluntaryparty to act as assessors.

I’ve recently gone through a similarprocess for the Liberal Democrat Party.This also involved creating a competencyframework, so it was possible to look atthe similarities and differences in sharedbeliefs about good and poor politicalperformance. Perhaps unsurprisingly,there are a lot of overlaps across parties[see box]. It is after all the same role. Butit is worth emphasising that for each ofthe six competencies there are a furtherfive positive and five negative behaviouralindicators that describe behaviourassociated with good and poorperformance as an MP. Although theseindicators have not been published yetthey do reveal subtle differences betweenpolitical parties. For example, as thesmaller of the three main political parties,

the Liberal Democrats need to attractmore candidates who are able andmotivated to develop seats in marginalconstituencies. Both parties identifiedcommunication and intellectual skills ascore aspects of the role and these were thetwo competencies that predicted electoralswing and percentage votes. However, themost important distinguishing factorbetween the political parties relate tovalues.

Values determine whereindividuals invest effort, and thechallenge for any selection process ishow to incorporate the assessment ofvalues in addition to knowledge, skillsor abilities. It’s also interesting to notethat a recent study we conducted with200 politicians before the expensesscandal found that politicians share a view that integrity is the mostimportant factor in political leadership(Silvester, Randall & Wyatt, in prep).This begs the question, why isintegrity so difficult? Is it something to do with the politicians themselves,or the political system they findthemselves in? Once again there areinteresting parallels with what hasbeen happening in the business world.

Do you think psychologists can helpput the integrity and trust back intopolitics?

A better understanding of political workwould certainly help. But the trustliterature tells us that, in broad terms, wetrust others if we perceive them to haveour interests at heart and are competentto deliver. It would do no harm to build a greater awareness and understanding ofwhat competence means in politics. Infact, Sharon Loivette has been conductingher PhD with me on politician behavioursassociated with trust in local leadership,so we’re gathering the evidence.

A related issue is the ‘cult ofpersonality’. Has it taken over politics,or is there still room for competenciesand skills?There’s a natural tendency for the mediato focus on perceived personality becausethis is a way of describing and labellingindividuals. There’s also a Darwinianculture in politics that assumes ‘the bestwill succeed’ – politicians will do wellbecause of who they are and their innatequalities rather than the support oropportunities they are given. As such,little or no training is provided to MPsand learning takes place by observingothers. We have an ESRC project at themoment that is looking at how politicianslearn, and the role of mentoring. Clearlypoliticians require skills, but the reasonswhy politicians don’t engage in trainingand development are fascinating in theirown right. The key question is how dowe support learning and development ina way that recognises the legitimacy ofpoliticians as elected representatives.

I suppose it’s more than just theperceived personality – so much of thepre-election banter seems to focus onthe physical qualities of a politician,


interview

Conservatives Competencies and Example Indicators

Liberal Democrat Competencies and Example Indicators

Communication Skills(e.g. Articulate and fluent when addressingan audience, able to think on feet)

Communication Skills(e.g. Communicates clearly, passionatelyand with conviction when using differentforms of media)

Intellectual Skills(e.g. Quickly processes, understands andlearns large amounts of information)

Strategic Thinking and Judgement(e.g. Understands the strategic relevance ofinformation, and makes links betweennational- and local-level issues)

Relating to People(e.g. Approachable, inspires confidence andtrust in others)

Representing People (e.g. Demonstrates tolerance in activelyrepresenting people of all backgrounds,ages, ethnicity and interests)

Leading and Motivating (e.g. Communicates a clear vision andpersuades others to follow them)

Leadership(e.g. Builds trust, confidence andenthusiasm among supporters)

Resilience and Drive (e.g. Demonstrates stamina andpersistence in overcoming resistance)

Resilience(e.g. Has the courage to make and defendunpopular decisions)

Conviction(e.g. Seeks opportunities to present viewsand persuades others to adopt their ideas)

Values in Action (e.g. Promotes beliefs and key messagesthrough their own actions)


such as looks, posture, voice, smile.Is this something psychology canilluminate and combat, or aninevitable factor in any selectionprocess?A fascination with physical appearanceis probably inevitable in politics, andincreasingly so given the growing useof media. But selection processes thatfocus on behavioural evidence fromdifferent exercises and ratings fromindependent assessors can minimisethe impact of such factors. In reality,the focus is on whether an individualpresents as competent. That said, oneof the MP competencies,communication skills, includesindicators concerned with whether or not an individual presents asapproachable and can deliver theirmessage in a way that is convincingand persuasive. We know frompsychological research that this candepend on factors such as an individual’slooks, voice and smile. So it is difficult todraw a simple conclusion about this.

You’ve asked the politicians about thenecessary skills – how close do youthink their perceptions are to whatpolitical success really is?In terms of actual evidence – we found a significant relationship between

performance in the Conservativeassessment centre and the electoralperformance of those individuals selectedas candidates to fight the 2005 generalelection (Silvester & Dykes, 2007).Critical thinking skills, and to a lesserextent communication skills, were bothpositively and significantly associatedwith percentage swing (the degree towhich voting in a particular association

moved towards the party) andpercentage votes received. This is thefirst empirical evidence that individualdifferences impact on politicalperformance. Of course electoralperformance is only one small part ofbeing an effective MP.

And do you think the competenciesthat the politicians identify asdesirable match up with what thepublic really want?This is a good question – I think it isvital that political parties have a visionof what they consider to be excellencein political leadership. But they alsoneed to be transparent about this,because it enables the public to makemore informed decisions. Of coursemembers of the public may have verydifferent perceptions of what isrequired – and there may be manyconflicting views across differentsectors of the public. Transparencymeans that debate and discussing canhappen.

In all honesty, I think most peoplehave very little idea of what politiciansdo – this was certainly true in my casebefore I began this work. I now realisethat political roles are very complexand demanding. There is an urgent

need to build wider public awareness

of what political roles really involve, andthis means that politicians have to bemore open about what they do.

Why do you think women are stillunderrepresented in politics? Are they as good as the men? A key driver for developing theConservative selection process was toaddress the underrepresentation ofwomen and minorities. We focused onthe approvals process (which determineswhether an individual can become anapproved prospective parliamentarycandidate and is therefore eligible toapply to local associations), because theConservative Party constitution makes itvery difficult for the central party to haveany influence over local party selectiondecisions. We also argued that as womenperform as well as men when assessedusing objective criteria and trainedassessors, there was no reason whywomen should not be approved in equalnumbers to men. In fact we tested this bycomparing the performance ratings acrossexercises and competencies for men andwomen in the assessment centre andfound absolutely no differences.

However, only 20 per cent of theapplicants going through the assessmentcentre were women, which means that ifmen and women were performing equally,only 20 per cent of approved prospectiveparliamentary candidates would bewomen too. This illustrates the complexnature of factors that influence diversity.We have no evidence that womenperform differently in politics, but thereare clearly many different reasons why itis harder for women to gain entry topolitical roles and progress once inposition. For example, even once selected

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Many politicians say that the election is the only appraisal they need

Elected to office‘Although the 2010 general election will seemany new MPs enter Parliament, they usuallyreceive little support to help them make thistransition. With the exception of a two-dayinduction programme run by the House, newMPs must navigate their way around bythemselves and work out how things are done.In recent Parliaments, the first challenge hasbeen to persuade a returning MP to share theirdesk until new roles and offices are allocated.New MPs must then set up offices in Parliamentand in their constituency.

The transition into Parliament is not like the transition of employees into other businessenvironments. A new Parliament means anentirely new organisation, with new people andresponsibilities, and an environmentcharacterised by ambiguity and change.Although MPs have a tremendous opportunity to shape their own roles, in the current politicalset-up they also have very little support andguidance to help them make the most of thisindependence. This is clearly something thatneeds to change if politicians are to becomeeffective political leaders more quickly.’

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as a candidate becoming an MP can take many years of campaigning in a constituency whilst holding downanother job, possibly in a different part of the country. Similarly, whilst men alsohave family responsibilities, womengenerally take on a disproportionatelylarge share of these. This means thatwomen are less likely to have the capacityto devote time and effort to campaigning.The idea of balancing the needs of ayoung family with three or four daysworking unsociable hours in Westminsterand a further two to three days work intheir constituency can also deter womenfrom applying.

Funnily enough though, people stillseem to abhor ‘career politicians’.Robert Louis Stevenson once said:‘Politics is perhaps the only professionfor which no preparation is thoughtnecessary.’ So what role canpsychology realistically play in actuallydeveloping the skills you haveidentified?The idea of a ‘career politician’ conjuresup an impression of someone with littleexperience outside politics, who isinterested in climbing the ‘greasy pole’ ofpower for their own interests rather thanthe interests of others. Psychology canplay an important role in unpacking andquestioning some of the assumptionsmade about career politicians. Forexample, using modern definitions fromcareer research it is clear that allpoliticians have careers (Arnold, 2009). It is therefore probably not the idea ofcareer per se that is the problem. The two assumed characteristics of careerpoliticians that people most dislike arethat they put self needs before those ofothers and, because they only haveexperience of working in and aroundWestminster they don’t understand whatthe real world is like, or the needs ofdifferent sections of society. There iscertainly evidence that the number ofMPs with a Westminster background isincreasing, but little is known aboutwhether they perform any less well ingovernment or for their constituents.

I recently completed a review of thelikely development needs of new MPs.One clear finding was that new MPs whohave prior experience of Parliament willhave a significant advantage over others,because they know how things work,where to go for support and, importantly,who the key power-brokers are. Thereforethe existence of ‘career politicians’ doeshave implications for how political partiesidentify and utilise new political talent.

Is politics just another job, and

therefore one that occupationalpsychologists can easily study? There are similarities with other types ofwork that allow us to draw comparisons.For example in the management literaturethere is growing recognition that businessleaders require ‘political’ skills –influencing, networking, anunderstanding of power relations andmediation are all skills that politicians areexpert at.

But there are also importantdifferences. Politicians are democraticallyelected, this provides them with ademocratic legitimacy that makes it verydifficult to simply set objectives or tellthem that they need to engage in certaintypes of work or development. In othertypes of organisations there is normally a hierarchy, where individuals performcertain tasks, and their performance isassessed by senior personnel according towhether it meets job and organisationalobjectives. Human resource functions arepolitical systems because they exist toenforce the power of management to setand review performance objectives.

Politicians have no managers – theyare elected to represent and take decisionson behalf of their constituents. We maynot always like the decisions they make,but we respect their right to make them.This also means that there is no singleperformance measure. As politicians haveto mediate between multiple conflictingviews about what is right, there willalways be different views about theirperformance. More importantly, however,there is a risk that introducing standardHR practices without recognising thepolitical role they play could underminethe need for politicians to actindependently and make unpopulardecisions. This is why many politicianssay that the election is the only appraisalthey need.

That said, we’re working on ways to provide information to politicians thatcan help them to develop and respond topublic perceptions about how they areperforming. One way is throughanonymous feedback from differentgroups including political colleagues,officers and government officials andmembers of the public.

Isn’t this all a bit depressing? Don’tyou think there’s a risk that selectionand feedback leads to homogenised,identikit politicians? Where does itleave the ‘one off’ characters likeMichael Foot?I don’t think people realise that selectionis already an important aspect ofbecoming a politician – at least outsidethe US, where it depends on how much

money individuals can raise to supporttheir campaigns. In most Westerncountries political parties act asgatekeepers in identifying the individualsthey consider have the ability and valuesnecessary to be an MP for their party –but the public still have the right tochoose between candidates from differentparties. Joni Lovenduski has describedparty selection processes as the ‘secretgarden’ of politics because before nowlittle has been know about how decisionshave been made and by whom. Increasingtransparency helps parties become moreaccountable both to their own membersand the public.

In your experience and bearing in mind your research, who have youconsidered ‘the ultimate politician’ and why?I’m not sure I could identify an ‘ultimatepolitician’ – they are all so different, and it just goes to show that there are manydifferent ways to be successful in politics.What I do know is that I’ve learned animmense amount from the politicians I’veworked with, much of this has made mequestion why psychologists take so littleaccount of the political nature of work.Ultimate politicians aren’t afraid torecognise and deal with the demands ofconflicted and complex environments,they inspire others to do better and strivefor excellence themselves. What they doneed to do better, however, is to build a far better public understanding of whatpoliticians do, what realistically could beimproved, and practical ways in whichthis might be achieved.

Are you a political being yourself? Will you be glued to Peter Snow’sswingometer on the night?I never was, but the more you get toknow the individuals involved, the moreinteresting it becomes.


interview

read

ing Arnold, J.M. (2009). Applying organisational career

theory to political careers. Political careers seminar.City University London.

Silvester, J. (2008). The good, the bad, and the ugly:Politics and politicians at work. In G.P.Hodgkinson and J.K. Ford (Eds.) Internationalreview of industrial and organizational psychology,Vol. 23 (pp.107–148). Chichester: Wiley.

Silvester, J. & Dykes, C. (2007). Selecting politicalcandidates: A longitudinal study of assessmentcentre performance and electoral success in the2005 UK General Election. Journal of Occupationaland Organizational Psychology, 80, 11–25.

Silvester, J. & Dykes, C. (2008). Recruiting politicians.In Local government leadership: Creating politicalvalue (pp.38-43). London: IDeA.http://bit.ly/aTPFYc


The Psychologist May 2010

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