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This article examines the construct validity of the impostor phenomenon, as measured by the Harvey Impostor Phenomenon Scale (HIPS). A factor analysis was performed on the fourteen scale items, and the results revealed that three factors accounted for 54.7% of the variance. The six items loading into the largest of these factors identify it as an "impostor" factor, whereas the remaining two factors corresponded to feelings of unworthiness and inadequacy. The results point to the potential usefulness of the factoranalyzed HIPS as a measure of the impostor phenomenon and for the general construct validity of the phenomenon.Several psychoanalysts have used the term "impostor" to describe a male who attempts to reconcile the inadequate person he is with the masculine ideals conveyed to him by assuming false identities and by fabricating his achievements. This impostor suffers from a profound impairment of his sense of identity, knows he is not the person he pretends to be, and assumes a false identity for the sole purpose of deceiving others (Chasseguet-Smirgel, 1985;Kaplan, 1984).

This study explored the sensitizing effects of pretreatment assessment on posttreatment chemotherapy nausea and vomiting and the interactive effects of personal dispositions for information seeking. Seventy oncology outpatients were recruited from oncology waiting rooms prior to receiving scheduled chemotherapy. Half of the patients were asked to complete an inventory about the severity of side effects that they had experienced following their most recent treatment session (experimental condition) and half were asked to complete an inventory concerning parking conditions at the treatment facility (control condition). All patients were also asked to complete the Miller Behavioral Style Scale (MBSS) and to later rate the severity of their side effects (between 36-48 hr following treatment). Based on the MBSS scores, patients were then divided into information seekers (monitors) and information avoiders (blunters). Overall, patients in the experimental condition rated the severity of their nausea as more severe than the control patients. In addition, patients who preferred a monitoring coping style experienced a significantly higher incidence rate and longer episodes of nausea than patients who preferred a blunting style. The methodological implications of these results for data collection and the assessment of side effects associated with aversive medical procedures are discussed.

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Social, sexual, economic, familial, and psychological characteristics of 764 applicants for surgical gender reassignment, 479 males and 285 females, who completed the application questionnaire and were subsequently interviewed by the Gender Dysphoria Program in Palo Alto, California, are examined. All information except diagnosis was obtained from the applicants' responses to a standardized 100-item questionnaire. Diagnosis was determined by a psychiatrist after a 1 1/2-hour interview. A comparison of male applicants to female applicants indicated differences in five areas: (1) sexual history; (2) acting-out behavior or sociopathy; (3) work history; (4) strategies for physically passing in the desired gender, e.g., hormone therapy; and (5) diagnosis. Females had experienced more stable same-sex sexual relationships and fewer opposite-sex sexual relationships than the males had experienced. The females exhibited less acting-out behavior, indicated by few criminal convictions and little involvement in prostitution, compared to the male applicants. Twice as many males as females were unemployed and receiving welfare at the time of application. In addition, males used cosmetic surgery and hormone therapy more frequently to facilitate physically passing in the desired gender than did the females. The most frequent diagnosis for males was transvestitism, while for the females it was classic transsexualism.