p–ISSN: 2723 – 6609 e-ISSN: 2745-5254
Vol. 5, No. 12, December 2024 http://jist.publikasiindonesia.id/

Indonesian Journal of Social Technology, Vol. 5, No. 12, December 2024 5914

The Relationship Between Impostor Syndrome and Career
Anxiety in Yogyakarta Students

Siti Layda Fadilah Tambak¹, Zahro Varisna Rohmadani²

Universitas 'Aisyiyah Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Email: [email protected]*, [email protected]

*Correspondence

ABSTRACT
Keywords: career
anxiety, impostor
syndrome, students.

Anxiety is something that is susceptible to everyone,
including someone who has just entered the work
environment to continue their career. Impostor syndrome is
someone who feels incapable if not for other people,
meaning that he does not believe in himself and does not
understand his own abilities. This study aims to determine
whether there is a relationship between impostor syndrome
and career anxiety in Yogyakarta students. The method in
this study uses two Likert scales, namely: the CIPS (Clance
Impostor Phenomenon Scale) scale and the Career Anxiety
Scale (CAS). The subjects of this study were Yogyakarta
students aged 20-24 years, the sample used a purposive
sampling technique totaling 115 respondents. Based on the
results of the study conducted using the Pearson product
moment correlation technique, it showed a significance
figure of p = 0.000 (p <0.05), this indicates a significant
relationship between the impostor syndrome variable and
career anxiety in students in Yogyakarta.

Introduction

Education is something that is very much needed by every individual. Students are
individuals who have an important role as agents of change for the order of life that is
realistically and logically accepted by society. Students experience more challenges and
demands when in higher education than at the previous level of education. However, this
is not a barrier for some students to obtain good achievements during their study period.
Students will try harder to obtain achievements both in terms of academics and non-
academics and achieve the desired goals (Zarnaghash, Mirderikvand, Sevahpandi, Ali.,
2015).

Planning and changes in learning methods make students have to adapt again, this
causes many students to start worrying and worrying about the fate of their future careers.
Individuals who cannot make their career plans will have feelings of anxiety, making
individuals unable to make further decisions and being in uncertain situations, these
anxiety factors are due to a lack of self-understanding, a lack of understanding of the
workplace, a lack of confidence in their abilities, and psychological conflicts (Jannah &

The Relationship Between Impostor Syndrome and Career Anxiety in Yogyakarta Students

Indonesian Journal of Social Technology, Vol. 5, No. 12, December 2024 5915

Cahyawulan, 2023). During this period, they will generally experience worry, confusion
and doubt about the direction of their life so that it will have an impact on their
development in responding to and facing various demands within and outside themselves
(Akhnaf, Putri, Vaca, Hidayah, Zahra, Rusdi., 2022).

Anxiety is something experienced by everyone, including someone who has just
entered the work environment to continue his career. (Miller & Rottinghaus, 2014)
defines anxiety as a reaction related to feelings of uncertainty and helplessness. Career
anxiety is said to be like an uncomfortable feeling related to failure in the field of
education or unemployment which has to do with the career development process
(Vignoli, 2015).

Career is one of the aspects in life that is normal and even adaptive to be a little
worried. Anxiety can be a benefit if it encourages us to be motivated, for example,
studying to face exams, but anxiety can be abnormal if its capacity exceeds the proportion
of threats obtained, in the sense of extreme anxiety and even interferes with daily
activities, when a person has confidence that he is not able to face the challenges that
occur in his life, then the person will feel anxiety that becomes more and more towards
challenges in his life (Vignoli, 2015).

This phenomenon explains that anxiety has been increasingly felt by students
because they are thinking about their future careers. Career anxiety can be caused by new
things such as in employment, where job opportunities are unpredictable, fear of failure
in career and difficulty making decisions about one's own career in the future. This career
anxiety is a reality, where individuals are approached with worries about themselves, and
the condition of individuals must choose a career that is suitable for the continuation of
life in the future (Putri & Yusuf, 2021).

The researcher conducted a preliminary study through Video Call WhatsApp on 2
respondents and the result of the interview was that the respondents felt that they doubted
their own abilities and knowledge. He is not confident in determining his career because
of his lack of understanding of his own abilities, he feels that he has no intelligence or
ability if it were not for his friends, and there is a demand from within him to be a
perfectionist. Perfectionist thinking and anxiety about poor results elicit responses such
as postponing work that should be done. Because the respondent feels that he has to
complete a perfect task so that he will take a long time to complete a certain task. When
respondents do not reach their goal, they will be disappointed and see it as a big failure.
This phenomenon is an external factor called impostor syndrome.

Impostor syndrome can cause a negative impact on a person's career because they
spend more time proving their competencies which can be exhausting and
counterproductive. The phenomenon of impostor syndrome also has a negative impact
that may occur such as losing career opportunities because they continuously feel
unworthy even though they have sufficient competence. Impostor syndrome will be afraid
of new challenges such as having a new job and new responsibilities because it will raise
high expectations and create a feeling of fear of not being able to meet his own

Siti Layda Fadilah Tambak, Zahro Varisna Rohmadani

Indonesian Journal of Social Technology, Vol. 5, No. 12, December 2024 5916

expectations (Bravata, Watts, Keefer, Dhan, Taylor, Clark, Nelson, Ph,Hagg, Heather.,
2020).

Individuals with Impostor Syndrome feel afraid of responsibility and expectations
for their success, feel unworthy of praise and find it difficult to accept failure and
criticism. Impostor syndrome has many significant implications for education (Qureshi,
Taj, Latif., 2017).

Impostor syndrome is never ready to face the next challenge and feels like it has to
be extraordinary with every new challenge it faces. Impostor syndrome is a phenomenon
that occurs in a person whose achievements or achievements they have obtained are a
matter of luck, they feel that they have deceived others regarding their abilities or
intelligence. Impostor syndrome refers to an individual who succeeds according to
external standards but has the illusion of personal incompetence (Patzak, Kollmayer,
Schober, Lundy, James., 2017). A person with this phenomenon will feel persistent doubt
about his ability to achieve achievements and the involvement to think about his career
(Ménard & Chittle, 2023).

The characteristics of an Impostor are not able to attribute success to his own
abilities but due to factors outside of him. They consider themselves less competent and
less intelligent. Impostors often find it difficult to accept people's praise because the
impression displayed is not in accordance with their identity so they feel that they have
deceived others. Maintaining this impression, an impostor tends to work harder than
others, but feels anxious for fear that others will find out his true abilities (Nurhikma &
Nuqul, 2021). Research conducted by Rohmadani & Winarsih (2019) showed that
impostor syndrome affected anxiety by 17.5% by involving 82 students from the
psychology study program and the anesthesiology nursing study program. Research
conducted by Ali, et al., (2015) also showed that 39.35% of new students were classified
as impostors and 23.15% of new students experienced academic anxiety.

Based on the explanation in the background above, individuals will feel anxious if
they do not have the ability and confidence, the factor of career anxiety that occurs in a
person is due to the demands that exist in themselves. The factors that cause career anxiety
are self-disbelief, not understanding the world of work, limited job vacancies, Impostor
Syndrome is someone who feels that he is incapable if not because of others, which means
that he does not believe in himself and does not understand his own abilities. Therefore,
researchers are interested in researching whether there is a relationship between impostor
syndrome and career anxiety in students in Yogyakarta.

Method

This study uses a quantitative approach with the independent variable being
impostor syndrome and the dependent variable being career anxiety. The population in
this study is Yogyakarta students aged 20-24 years. The sampling technique used is
nonprobability sampling, namely purposive sampling. The determination of the sample
was carried out using the Lemeshow formula and the minimum number of samples

The Relationship Between Impostor Syndrome and Career Anxiety in Yogyakarta Students

Indonesian Journal of Social Technology, Vol. 5, No. 12, December 2024 5917

needed in this study was 115 respondents. The sample to be selected in this study must
meet criteria such as: Active students in Yogyakarta, aged 20-24 years, male and female.
The measuring tools used in this study used the Impostor Syndrome scale (CIPS) and the
career anxiety scale (CAS) using the Likert scale model, with answer responses from 1
(strongly inappropriate) to 4 (very appropriate). The impostor syndrome scale is made
based on three aspects, including Fake, Luck, Discount (Chrisman, et al. 1995). The
Career Anxiety Scale is made based on four aspects, including personal ability, rational
beliefs about work, professional training and education, and work environment (Tsai, et
al. 2017).

The data analysis test used in this study was carried out using the Product Moment
method using SPSS 24 for Windows. The first test carried out was a validity test, the
questions presented in the questionnaire were declared valid. Next, measurements were
made on variables using a reliability test. In the standard reliability test, the value used
is the value of alpha Cronbach whose minimum value is 0.6. The alpha value of Cronbach
of the Impostor Syndrome is 0.884 with the number of items 13 out of 21. For the results
of career anxiety, Cronbach's alpha value was obtained with a result of 0.899gf with a
total of 25 items out of 25. These results show that the research variables are declared
reliable.

Results and Discussion
The subject of this study is university students in Yogyakarta. The number of

respondents participating in this study amounted to 115 subjects. The description of the
subject is as follows:

Table 1

Subject Description
Subject Description Frequency Percentage sum

Age 20-21 65 65.00% 100

22-24 35 35.00%

Gender Man 35 35.00% 100

Woman 65 65.00%

Based on the data in the table above, it can be seen that the majority of subjects are
in the age range between 20-21 years (65.00%). The most subjects were based on gender,
namely female (65.00%).

The description of the research data was obtained through categorization of
variables using hypothetical statistics obtained based on the compiled scale. The
categories of career anxiety scores can be seen in the following table:

Siti Layda Fadilah Tambak, Zahro Varisna Rohmadani

Indonesian Journal of Social Technology, Vol. 5, No. 12, December 2024 5918

Table 2
Categorization of Career Anxiety

Category Interval score Frequency Percentage
(%)

Low
Keep

X < 26
27 ≤ x < 46

15
79

13.0%
68.7%

Tall X ≥ 47 21 18.3%
Sum 115 100%

Based on the data in the table above, it can be seen that out of 115 subjects, there
are 15 people (13.0%) who have a low level of career anxiety, 81 people (70.5%) who
are in the medium category, and 19 people (16.5%) who are in the high category. Based
on the results of the categorization, the majority of subjects had a level of career anxiety
that was classified as "moderate". The Impostor Syndrome score categories can be seen
in the following table:

Table 3
Categorization of Impostor Syndrome

Category Interval
score

Frequency Percentage (%)

Low
Keep

X < 33
34 ≤ x < 51

15
81

13.0%
70.5%

Tall X ≥ 52 19 16.5%
Sum 115 100%

Based on the data in the table above, it can be seen that out of 115 subjects, there
are 15 people (13.0%) who have Impostor Syndrome levels that are in the low category,
81 people (70.5%) who are in the medium category, and 19 people (16.5%) who are in
the high category. Based on the results of the categorization, the majority of subjects had
Impostor Syndrome which was classified as "moderate".

The assumption test used in this study consists of a normality test and a linearity
test. The normality test was tested using the Kolmogorov Smirnov One-Sample. It is
known that the variables of impostor syndrome and career anxiety show a value of 200
with (p>0.05) which means that the data of impostor syndrome and career anxiety are
normally distributed. Meanwhile, the linearity test obtained a p-value of 0.00 with a
significance value of (p>0.05) which means that the impostor syndrome variable does not
have a linear relationship with career anxiety.

After testing the assumptions, then a hypothesis test is carried out using product
moments, which can be seen in the following table:

Table 4

Hypothesis Test Results
Variable Pearson

Correlation
Sig Information

Impostor
Syndrome

.769** .000 Significant

The Relationship Between Impostor Syndrome and Career Anxiety in Yogyakarta Students

Indonesian Journal of Social Technology, Vol. 5, No. 12, December 2024 5919

Career Anxiety .769** .000 Significant

The results of the data analysis in the table above show that the value of the
correlation coefficient (r) is .769 with a significance level (p) of 0.000. The hypothesis
criteria used are that if the significance value is below 0.005, H0 is rejected and Ha is
accepted. A significance value of p 0.000 indicates that there is a relationship between
independent variables (impostor syndrome) and dependent (career anxiety). The value of
the correlation coefficient r = .769 indicates that the level of correlation/relationship
between independent variables (impostor syndrome) and dependent (career anxiety) is
very strong. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is a positive relationship between
impostor syndrome and career anxiety of students in Yogyakarta.

Based on the results of this study revealing that there is a relationship between
impostor syndrome and career anxiety in Yogyakarta students, Research conducted by
setiani (2022) shows that impostor syndrome is experienced by many new students
involving 57 students from the Faculty of Medicine, Upn Veteran Jakarta, showing that
impostor syndrome is vulnerable to being experienced by students with a result of
(57.6%). Research conducted by Rohmadani & Winarsih (2019) showed that impostor
syndrome affected anxiety by 17.5% by involving 82 students from the psychology study
program and the anesthesiology nursing study program.

Based on one of the factors that affect career anxiety is irrational thoughts that
include failure, namely the assumption from within a person that something bad will
happen to him. Individuals experience anxiety and feelings of inadequacy and are unable
to overcome problems (Ghufron, 2010). The feeling of an individual's inability to solve
the problem arises due to doubts about their abilities and feelings of inadequacy and
unworthiness towards the stages of development towards their own career. Aspects of
impostor syndrome that can affect a person's career anxiety include, fake, which is an
individual's doubts about themselves. This aspect also shows the individual's concern for
intelligence and abilities that are actually known to others. Luck is an aspect that refers
to the misattribution of success. Discount is an impostor who tends to downplay the
meaning of the success achieved and reject praise from others for their success caused by
the ability of Chrisman, et al. (1995).

Difficulties in the process of leading to a career can cause anxiety which will
eventually lead to despair. Feelings of anxiety and hopelessness are caused by a lack of
confidence in oneself (Putro, 2018). Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded
that the higher a person's impostor syndrome , the higher the career anxiety experienced
by a person, and vice versa, if the lower a person's impostor syndrome, the lower the
career anxiety experienced by a person.

Conclusion

The results of the hypothesis test that have been carried out can be concluded that
there is a significant relationship between Impostor Syndrome and career anxiety of

The Relationship Between Impostor Syndrome and Career Anxiety in Yogyakarta Students

Indonesian Journal of Social Technology, Vol. 5, No. 12, December 2024 5921

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