Self-Talk: Can It Drag You Towards Downfall?
Although self-talk does not necessarily lead to neurotic imposture, both of these ideas of behavior are very viable and accurately based off of scientific research and common personal experiences. Amy Cuddy’s, “Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are”, discusses how internal communication, which is how a person speaks to oneself through body language, can have an effect on the overall outcome of life experiences and bases this claim off of personal experiences communally shared by the audience and most people. “The Dangers of Feeling like a Fake,” by Manfred Kets de Vries, explains neurotic imposture, and how these feelings of fakeness can eventually lead to the downfall of the impostor and even the …show more content…
The experiences are both feasible, however, they do not seem to occur in the same individual. There are many differences between Cuddy’s evaluation and that of Kets de Vries. For example, Cuddy explains that self-talk is based off of body language, and how this change in body language can affect the outcome of major life experiences. She believes that “faking” their way through life’s experiences is an acceptable course of action because eventually the confidence will internalize (Cuddy). Kets de Vries, on the other hand, discuses neurotic imposture and states that it is formed in early childhood. He then continues by explaining the trigger of imposture -perfectionism- and talks about fraudulence or “faking it” as an effect of imposture (Kets de Vries). Also, according to Cuddy, low confidence people don’t set particularly high goals because they do not have high enough self-esteem to believe in themselves (Cuddy). Neurotic impostors, however, tend to set high, unrealistic goals; when they do achieve them, they blame outside factors, like timing, for their success (Kets de Vries). These differences account for just how unrelated these two behaviors …show more content…
In his essay, Kets de Vries uses case studies, which are descriptive analyses of a person, group or event. Although case studies are beneficial because they focus on real-life situations, they also have limitations involving reliability, validity, and generalizability. Because of these limitations, supporting their validity is essential. If Kets de Vries had of added just a pinch of research within his studies, his overall claim would be much more concrete. For example, in Kets de Vries case study of Tobin Holmes, he described Holmes’ attributes that he later related back to neurotic imposture: a sense of fraudulence, undeserving of their success (Kets de Vries). If he had cited Paula Dudau’s scholarly article, The Relation Between Perfectionism and Impostor Phenomenon, and explained that impostors are “those who attribute their success to external causes, have a difficult time accepting positive feedback from others” and so on, the reliance on other pieces of scholarly work than just his own would have enhanced his credibility (Dudău). This is not the only gap within his argument. For instance, he never addressed the notion that although he lists factors that he believes to lead to neurotic imposture, there is no scientific evidence given to back up his claim, and therefore his claim is not as legitimate as it could be. In his essay, Kets de Vries