Honors Theses

Date of Award

5-2024

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Degree Name

BA

Department

Psychology

Faculty Mentor

Laura Powell

Advisor(s)

Patricia Davis, Jack Shelley-Tremblay

Abstract

Preparing for a career in the healthcare field is incredibly strenuous and demanding, and previous research endeavors have demonstrated that students in professional healthcare programs show an increased susceptibility to impostor phenomenon, perfectionism, psychological distress, and burnout. Previous studies have indicated a possible link between impostor phenomenon, perfectionism, psychological distress, and burnout; however, these studies only considered two or three constructs at a time in graduate students (Rosenthal, et al., 2021; Seong, et al., 2020; Garratt-Reed, et al., 2018). The current study’s purpose was to investigate the whether or not impostor phenomenon, perfectionism, and psychological distress could be potential predictors of burnout in pre-health undergraduate students at the University of South Alabama. This main purpose was studied along with four other hypotheses. To accomplish this, the study utilized the Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale, Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, the Distress Questionnaire-5, and the Burnout Assessment Tool. The scales were distributed to undergraduate students at the university through Qualtrics and SONA softwares. It was found that there were no statistically significant differences between pre-health concentrations in any of these constructs; however, it was found that pre-health students had a statistically significant difference from non-pre-health-students in terms of the Personal Standards subscale score on the FMPS. It was found that perfectionism and psychological distress are statistically significant predictors of burnout in both pre-health and non-pre-health participants; however, impostor phenomenon is not considered to be a predictor.

Additional Files
Lee_Victoria_Poster.pdf (451 kB)
Honor's Project Poster
Download

Share

COinS