00 // ORIGINS
Pauline Rose Clance, PhD, ABPP
“Despite outstanding academic and professional accomplishments, [individuals who experience the Impostor Phenomenon] persist in believing that they are really not bright and have fooled anyone who thinks otherwise.”
— Clance & Imes (1978, p. 241), the paper that named the Impostor Phenomenon
Pauline Rose Clance,
PhD, ABPP
Dr. Pauline Rose Clance is Professor Emerita of Psychology at Georgia State University. Dr. Clance and Dr. Suzanne Imes published the seminal article identifying the Impostor Phenomenon concept. That research was largely based upon white, high achieving women excelling in male dominated careers. Dr. Clance then went on to develop the Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale (CIPS) in 1985. The CIPS has since been used across a wide range of populations and careers in countless research studies worldwide. This site is the officially authorized digital implementation of her scale.
Dr. Clance grew up in the coal-mining region of Appalachian Virginia — the youngest of six children in a community where West Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina converge. Like many of the high-achieving women she later studied, she experienced persistent self-doubt despite her academic success. This personal history gave her research both urgency and unusual depth, and it was precisely this lived experience of succeeding while feeling undeserving that shaped her collaboration with Dr. Imes and their landmark 1978 paper naming the Impostor Phenomenon.
Sources: Georgia State University Office of the Provost (2026); GSU News, Endowed Scholarship Honors Legacy of Discovery.
01 // About
About the Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale
The Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale (CIPS) is a validated 20-item psychological measure developed by Dr. Pauline Rose Clance in 1985. It was designed to capture how strongly an individual experiences impostor feelings — that persistent sense that success is undeserved, regardless of objective evidence to the contrary.
The scale has appeared in countless peer-reviewed studies across clinical, academic, and organizational settings worldwide. This digital version reproduces the original items verbatim and applies the official scoring bands established in the validation literature. The CIPS has been demonstrated to be relevant across a wide range of cultures, populations, and careers using the current wording of items.
Source: Clance, P. R. (1985). The Impostor Phenomenon: When Success Makes You Feel Like A Fake. Atlanta, GA: Peachtree Publishers. Copyright 1985 by Pauline Rose Clance, PhD, ABPP.
02 // Scoring
Scoring
Once you have answered all 20 items, your responses are summed to give a total score between 20 and 100. Higher scores indicate more frequent impostor experiences. All scoring happens entirely in your browser — nothing is stored or transmitted.
| Score Range | Interpretation |
|---|---|
| 40 or below | Few impostor characteristics |
| 41–60 | Moderate impostor experiences |
| 61–80 | Frequent impostor feelings |
| 81–100 | Intense impostor experiences |
Source: Clance (1985); Chrisman, S. M., Pieper, W. A., Clance, P. R., Holland, C. L., & Glickauf-Hughes, C. (1995). Validation of the Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 65(3), 456–467.
03 // Literature
Reference List
Foundational Works
Clance, P. R., & Imes, S. A. (1978). The impostor phenomenon in high achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 15(3), 241–247. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0086006
Clance, P. R. (1985). The impostor phenomenon: Overcoming the fear that haunts your success. Atlanta, GA: Peachtree Publishers.
Clance, P. R. (1985). The impostor phenomenon: When success makes you feel like a fake. Atlanta, GA: Bantam Books with Peachtree Publishers.
Chrisman, S. M., Pieper, W. A., Clance, P. R., Holland, C. L., & Glickauf-Hughes, C. (1995). Validation of the Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 65(3), 456–467. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa6503_6
Some Recent Scholarship
Clance, P. R., & Lawry, S. (2024). Impostor phenomenon: Origins and treatment. In K. O. Cokley (Ed.), The impostor phenomenon: Psychological research, theory, and interventions (pp. 17–43). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000397-002
Cokley, K. O. (Ed.). (2024). The impostor phenomenon: Psychological research, theory, and interventions. American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000397-000
Some Clinical and Therapeutic Approaches
Bravata, D. M., Watts, S. A., Keefer, A. L., Madhusudhan, D. K., Taylor, K. T., Clark, D. M., Nelson, R. S., Cokley, K. O., & Hagg, H. K. (2020). Prevalence, predictors, and treatment of impostor syndrome: A systematic review. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 35, 1252–1275. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-019-05364-1
Para, E., Dubreuil, P., Miquelon, P., & Martin-Krumm, C. (2024). Interventions addressing the impostor phenomenon: A scoping review. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, Article 1360540. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1360540
Gisselbaek, M., Jourdan, A., Bourquin, C., van der Vleuten, C., & Savoldelli, G. (2026). Rethinking the impostor phenomenon: An umbrella review of concept, context and interventions. Medical Education, 60(6), 607–624. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.70076
Digital Tool Citation
Nagar, R., Lawry, S., & Clance, P. R. (2026). Digital implementation of the Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale.
04 // Scholarship
Live CIPS Research Feed (updated every 24 hours)
Recent peer-reviewed studies using the Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale (CIPS), pulled live from Semantic Scholar and refreshed every 24 hours. Semantic Scholar indexes a large but partial subset of the available research literature — many published studies using the CIPS may not appear here.
05 // Contact
Contact & Attribution
Scale Author
Pauline Rose Clance, PhD, ABPP
Co-founder of Impostor Phenomenon and author of the Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale (CIPS).
paulineroseclance.comScale Representative
Suzann Lawry, PhD
The CIPS representative for Dr. Pauline Rose Clance. Primary contact for questions about the scale, research collaborations, speaking engagements, and other professional inquiries.
Georgia State University — Department of Psychology
slawry@gsu.eduPrivate Practice — Atlanta, Georgia
Digital Tool Creator
Ria Nagar, MSc, M.A.
Designed and built this digital implementation of the CIPS as a freely accessible tool for researchers, clinicians, and the general public.
Original Scale: Clance, P. R. (1985). The Impostor Phenomenon: When Success Makes You Feel Like A Fake (pp. 20–22). Toronto: Bantam Books. Copyright 1985 by Pauline Rose Clance, PhD, ABPP. Reprinted by permission.
Digital Tool: Nagar, R., Lawry, S., & Clance, P. R. (2026). Digital implementation of the Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale.