新一代社會棟樑戰勝自我懷疑的新方法

Feeling as if you don't belong -- that you've landed in a fortunate spot by luck or by accident -- can send anyone into a tailspin, from college students to corporate executives.

感覺自己不屬於所處的環境――認爲自己是憑運氣或偶然纔到達這個幸運的位置――會讓你陷入消沉，無論你是大學生還是企業高管。

Imposter fears are common among men and women alike, research shows, and are blamed for an array of problems, from high college-failure and dropout rates to low female participation in math, engineering and science jobs.

研究表明，“冒名頂替者恐懼”(imposter fears)在男性和女性中均很常見，被認爲是引發一系列問題的禍因，比如造成大學掛科率和退學率高企，以及女性從事數學、工程和科學工作的比例很低等。

Separate from general emotional insecurity, imposter fears affect high achievers and focus on worries about being exposed as a phony. These feelings can come up in many situations in the workplace -- when an executive is called upon to accept a promotion, dig into a tough project, or give voice to a fledgling idea. Joyce Roche, a former senior executive at Avon Products, worried in secret for years that she was 'not as smart, not as prepared, not as good as my counterparts,' says Ms. Roche, author of a recent book on the topic, 'The Empress Has No Clothes.'

與普通情感上的不安全感不同，“冒名頂替者恐懼”影響的是成就較高者，主要與擔心自己會被揭爲名不副實的憂慮有關。這些感覺會在職場的許多情境中出現，比如管理者在獲得晉升機會、被要求實施一個棘手的項目或表達一個尚未完全成熟的想法時。喬伊絲・羅奇(Joyce Roche)原是雅芳(Avon Products)的一名高管，她說多年來她曾一直私下擔心自己“不像我的同事那麼聰明、那麼有準備，也不像他們那麼出色”。她最近出版了一本與該話題有關的書――《“皇后的新裝”：戰勝自我懷疑》(The Empress Has No Clothes)。

A new kind of psychological intervention is proving surprisingly powerful in combating these fears for students in middle school, high school or college. Drawing on decades of research, the interventions deliver 'persuasive yet stealthy' psychological messages to neutralize crippling anxieties and doubts, according to a 2011 research review authored by David Scott Yeager, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, and Gregory Walton, an assistant professor of psychology at Stanford University. Students who participate in the exercises post better grades, lower dropout rates and in some cases, better health and well-being for as long as three years.

一種新的心理干預方法在幫助初高中學生或大學生戰勝此類恐懼方面顯現出出奇的效果。戴維・斯科特・耶格爾(David Scott Yeager)與格雷戈裏・沃爾頓(Gregory Walton)撰寫的綜述論文指出，該干預方法吸收了以往數十年的研究，傳遞出“有說服力又讓人不知不覺的”心理信息來消除極其有害的焦慮感和質疑。耶格爾爲得克薩斯大學奧斯汀分校(University of Texas at Austin)的心理學助理教授，沃爾頓則是斯坦福大學(Stanford University)的心理學助理教授。在長達三年的時間中，參與訓練的學生取得了更優秀的成績、退學率也更低，某些時候他們還更健康更快樂。

The exercises take aim at students' 'worries about whether they're respected, whether their teachers think they're dumb, whether they belong -- and precisely, briefly, without stigmatizing them or singling them out, give them messages that can remove those barriers,' Dr. Yeager says.

耶格爾稱，這些訓練針對學生們“對他們是否受到尊重、老師是否覺得他們愚笨以及他們是否屬於所處環境的憂慮，而且在不讓他們羞愧和不區別對待他們的情況下，精確並簡要地向他們傳達可清除那些障礙的信息。”

Students receiving the intervention may hear or see quotes and videos from similar students talking about how fears of not belonging on campus are normal at first -- and pass in time. Another message: Poor academic performance is normal at first in the transition to a new school, and students' grades typically improve as they adjust. Another common intervention teaches that intelligence isn't fixed: The brain can change and get stronger with practice and hard work.

受到心理干預的學生會聽到或看到與自己相仿的學生所說的話或錄製的視頻，他們在視頻中稱一開始對“自己不屬於校園”的恐懼是正常的，而且這會隨着時間的流逝而消失。另一條信息是：在剛到新學校的過渡期內，一開始學習成績不好也是正常的，在適應新學校後，成績通常都會提高。另一項常見的心理干預則教導說智力不是固定不定的：大腦會變化，會隨着鍛鍊和努力而變得更強大。

'We just re-direct their thinking,' Dr. Yeager says. 'They make all the tough decisions and exhibit the grit and tenacity to succeed.'

耶格爾說：“我們只是重新引導他們的想法，他們要自己做出所有艱難的決定和展示出成功的勇氣和韌勁。”

The biggest effects are seen among disadvantaged groups. African-American college freshmen who participated in an exercise to ease fears that they didn't belong on campus posted sharply higher grades for three years, compared with controls. They also reported better health and well-being as seniors, according to a 2011 study in Science co-authored by Dr. Walton.

這些心理干預在弱勢羣體中的作用最大。沃爾頓與其他研究者共同發表於《科學》(Science)雜誌的2011年的研究指出，與對照組相比，參與了緩和對“自己不屬於校園”的恐懼訓練的非裔美國大學新生三年間的成績都大幅提高。另外，他們也表示自己在大四時更健康更快樂。

Female engineering students took part in another intervention designed to help them gain confidence; the exercise led them to post higher grades and form more friendships with male counterparts, according to the research, led by Dr. Walton.

在由沃爾頓主持的這項研究中，工程學系女生參與了另一項旨在幫助她們獲得自信的心理干預。研究稱，該訓練促成她們取得了更好成績並與更多男同學結爲朋友。

Of course, researchers acknowledge that such messages could come off like a bad comedy skit if delivered poorly -- as 'a hollow, ego-boosting exercise' in empty self-praise that 'I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, 'people like me,' ' says the 2011 research review by Dr. Yeager and Dr. Walton, quoting the early 1990s 'Saturday Night Live' character Stuart Smalley.

當然，研究人員也承認，此類信息如果傳遞失當，結果就像是糟糕的喜劇小品。耶格爾與沃爾頓2011年的研究稱，那就像空洞的自我讚揚中“虛僞的自我膨脹做法”，比如上世紀90年代初《週六夜現場》(Saturday Night Live)的人物斯圖爾特・斯莫利(Stuart Smalley)所說的“我很棒，我很聰明，該死，‘大家都喜歡我’。”

But the interventions are administered carefully. Teachers follow a scripted introduction describing the project as an educational or research exercise. After seeing the messages on a computer, students are asked to write or record on video their own version of the messages to be read by future students. They aren't told they're receiving potentially helpful material, to prevent them from feeling stigmatized. Researchers measure the results by tracking their behavior and performance afterward.

但是，這些干預措施都是進行了細緻管理的。教師要遵照事先寫好的介紹材料，將項目描述爲教育或研究活動。看到電腦上的信息後，學生們被要求寫下或在視頻中記錄他們自己對信息的描述，以供以後的學生閱讀。研究者未告知他們接收的是可能有幫助的材料，以免讓他們覺得受侮辱。接下去，研究者會通過跟蹤他們的行爲和表現來衡量結果。

Proponents acknowledge that such exercises can't remove deep obstacles such as poverty or trauma, or enable students to thrive in a bad educational environment. But the results, which have been replicated many times, show that the obstacles facing disadvantaged groups are at least partly psychological and can be reduced. 'Academic performance is about 70% knowledge and studying, and 30% is the psychological piece,' says Valerie Purdie-Vaughns, an assistant professor of psychology at Columbia who has co-authored research on interventions.

該方法的支持者承認，此類訓練不能掃除像貧窮或心理創傷這樣的深層障礙，也不能讓學生在糟糕的教育環境中獲得成功。然而，這些已經多次得到驗證的研究結果表明，弱勢羣體面臨的障礙至少有一部分與心理相關，是可以減少的。哥倫比亞大學(Columbia)心理學助理教授瓦萊麗・珀迪・沃格恩斯(Valerie Purdie-Vaughns)稱：“學業成績70%與知識和學習有關，另外30%是心理因素。”沃格恩斯曾與他人共同撰寫有關心理干預的研究論文。

Office workers can build on such insights to get imposter fears under control -- for instance, by talking with colleagues to see if their vision of their abilities is realistic. Support from colleagues who can provide a reality check is one of the best ways to combat imposter fears at work, says a 2012 study by researchers at the University of Alabama.

職場人士可借鑑此類見解來控制自己的“冒名頂替者恐懼”，比如和同事聊聊天，看看他們對自身能力的想象是否貼合實際。阿拉巴馬大學(University of Alabama)研究人員2012年的一項研究指出，來自能提供現實檢驗的同事的支持是戰勝職場中“冒名頂替者恐懼”的最佳方法之一。

For her part, Ms. Roche used a writing exercise. Whenever she faced a new job challenge, she poured out on paper all the emotions she was feeling. Reading this uncensored account helped her realize she was overreacting, she says. Then she wrote down her past accomplishments as evidence that she was capable of meeting the new challenge. 'This gave me the ability to put a little distance between my knee-jerk reaction and the hard data points, and ask myself, 'What's the reality here?'' she says.

在她自己的經歷中，羅奇運用了將所有恐懼寫下來的方式。每當她面臨新的工作挑戰，她就會在紙上一一寫下她感覺到的所有情緒。她說，讀讀這些毫無保留的話會讓她意識到自己反應過度。接下來她會寫下自己過往的成就以表明她能夠應對新挑戰。她說：“這麼做讓我能在自己的下意識反應與確鑿的數據之間創造一點兒距離，然後我問自己，‘實際情況怎麼樣？’”

The positive messages used in the interventions can work for many kinds of students. Khan Academy, a nonprofit online-learning organization, is testing the impact of embedding messages in its video lessons such as 'Your brain is like a muscle. The more you flex it, the more powerful it gets,' says Matt Wahl, a product manager for Khan. Preliminary research shows users perform better on problems that include the messages.

此類心理干預中的積極信息適用於多種類型的學生。非盈利網絡學習機構Khan Academy的產品經理馬特・沃爾(Matt Wahl)稱，該學院測試了在視頻教程中加入一些積極信息的影響，比如像“你的大腦就像肌肉組織，鍛鍊的越多，它就會變得越強大”這樣的信息。初步的研究表明，使用者在包含該類信息的問題上表現得更出色。

Meanwhile, researchers are scaling up the interventions. A Stanford lab called PERTS has run them with 15,000 students at more than 100 middle and high schools and community colleges. An intervention with 2,572 students at Ivy Tech Community College, a statewide system in Indiana, led to a 0.35-point increase in average grades among disadvantaged students and a 10 percentage-point increase in their pass rates, says Ronald Sloan, a vice chancellor, academic affairs, in Muncie, Ind., for Ivy Tech. Two big universities have run interventions for incoming freshmen, halving dropout rates among some target groups.

與此同時，研究人員還加大了心理干預的規模。斯坦福大學一個名爲PERTS的實驗室對來自100多所初高中及社區大學的15,000名學生進行了干預。位於印第安納曼西市的常春藤科技社區學院(Ivy Tech Community College)是一個遍及印第安納全州的教育機構，該學院負責教務的副校長羅納德・斯隆(Ronald Sloan)稱，對學院2,572名學生的心理干預促使弱勢學生的平均分數和及格率分別提高了0.35分和10%。有兩所大型高校對入學新生進行了心理干預，使某些目標羣體的退學率降低了一半。

Drawing on insights from the research, Stanford sent its 1,677 incoming freshmen a welcome video this fall in which graduating seniors discussed what they wished they had known when they arrived on campus, says Robert Urstein, Stanford's dean of freshmen. One student in the video reassured viewers that 'you're not the only one who is going through' high levels of stress.

斯坦福大學負責新生事務的主任羅伯特・厄斯坦(Robert Urstein)稱，該校借鑑了這些研究的見解，於今年秋季向1,677名新生髮送了一段歡迎視頻，即將畢業的大四學生在視頻中討論了他們希望自己在剛入學時就能知道的事情。其中一名學生安撫道：“你不是唯一一個經歷（高強度壓力）的人。”

In the first week after it was sent, the video was viewed 10,000 times.

在這段視頻發出後的第一週，它就被人觀看了10,000次。