We are constantly facing new challenges. Yet while some of us seem to be better at dealing with them than others, skill and intelligence are not the only qualities that set people apart. Two people with the exact same abilities will have radically different experiences when facing new challenges based on their attributional style and confidence level.
It is easy to feel like an impostor, yet this feeling has little to do with our actual level of competence. In my March 9 column for Métro, I decided to re-visit this theme from a different angle. I always meet people who are very good at what they do, (and of course others who aren’t). When a person begins to establish a track record of success, one would assume that he or she would develop some self-confidence. While this can happen to a certain extent, past success does not have the impact on self-confidence that you would expect. This is where our attributional style comes in.
If I succeed at overcoming a challenge I might learn that I was smart enough to do so. On the other hand, I might learn that I just got lucky. Since almost every new challenge we face is unique, past success can never guarantee future success. All we can count on is that we had the skills to figure it out before. Chances are that in new but similar circumstances, we will be able to do so again.
This is why lack of confidence – which can contribute to depression – tends to persist. A person lacking self-confidence, by making attributions to luck or by failing to generalize success, sees new challenges as TOTALLY different. Past success proves very little to them.
SIX MATH PROBLEMS
(Source: Six problèmes de mathématiques. Journal Métro, March 9, 2010)
How confident are you when facing a new situation? Here are two ways of looking at the same challenge:
Problems 1 to 5:
Let’s suppose I present you with a difficult math problem and that something important was at stake, such as a job offer or entry into a university. At first you have no idea how to solve it and worry that you might blow your chance. After ten or fifteen minutes the solution comes to you. Phew! I then give you four more problems and the same thing happens for each of them – it takes you about ten to fifteen minutes of anxious head scratching before a solution comes to you.
Problem 6:
Now I hand you problem number six. Once again, at first glance no solution appears obvious. Will you be as worried about finding the solution to number six as you were for number one? Well, it depends a lot on what you learned from the first five problems.
I can solve THIS problem
Some people focus on the specific task at hand. When they find a solution, they feel relief that they happened to have the skills to solve that specific problem. In a certain sense they feel lucky. But who knows if they will be able to solve the next problem? For these people, problem 6 causes just as much anxiety as problem 1.
I can solve A problem
Other people focus on their abilities in a more general fashion. To them, what they learn through problems 1 to 5 is that they have the math skills and the general intelligence to be able to solve a tough problem when they work at it for a while. These people develop confidence in their abilities and therefore feel less anxious when they are presented with problem 6.
Life problems
How we attribute success is what sets a confident person apart from a less confident individual, even if they both have the same general intelligence, education, and ability. When facing life challenges, the person lacking confidence attributes success to luck or to specific circumstances. New situations always cause anxiety since everything has changed and luck can run out. The confident person, on the other hand, does not need to know what the new circumstances are. New challenges are simply different, not necessarily tougher. To this person, past success confirms that the skills required for future success are already in place.
Tagged as Anxiety, attributional style, Depression, impostor syndrome, Self-confidence, Stress.
Posted in Anxiety, Depression, Stress.
Posted on 22 Mar 2010
