Young said she felt a sense of failure throughout graduate school, as she believed the school only accepted her because it needed the tuition.
"Despite evidence to the contrary, many bright, capable people do not experience an innate sense of competence or success, believing they have fooled others," Young said.
Young has toured the country, presenting research on the "impostor syndrome," which she described as a feeling of incompetence and a belief that success is achieved by fooling others.
People often "explain away their success" by describing their achievements as the result of luck or other people's help, Young said. A graduate student once told Young that he believed he received his doctorate because his professors never read his final thesis.
"He told me, 'Oh, they probably just weighed it, saw it was 12 pounds and decided to just get him out of here,'" Young said.
Another woman, who achieved the highest score on the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination in Massachusetts, played down her achievement by explaining that Massachusetts is a small state, Young said.
"I think we have to appreciate the incredible amount of creativity it takes to come up with these things," she said.
People have developed coping mechanisms to protect themselves from their perceived lack of self-worth, Young said.
Some work harder than others to hide their supposed "ineptness," she said.
Others hold back, choosing not to participate in discussion to protect themselves from criticism, Young said.
Certain groups of people are at higher risk of developing the impostor syndrome, Young said. Immigrants, students and people who are minorities where they work, including women in the fields of science and engineering, are more likely to feel unaccomplished, she said.
Even celebrities like Jodie Foster are not immune from the syndrome, Young said. After Foster won an Academy Award in 1989 for "The Accused," she constantly feared that the Academy would ask her to return the Oscar and tell her it was a mistake, Young said.
Women, overall, are more likely to experience the impostor syndrome, Young explained. Researchers have found that the analytical section of the male brain adapts to unsettling criticism so that it no longer bothers them after a relatively short period of time, she said, explaining that this adaptation takes more time to develop in women.
Young explained that this difference is also social. Men externalize problems and learn from an early age to boast or exaggerate, she said.
"Boys say things like, 'Oh, this is what I did in the back seat with the girl,' or 'That fish was this big' all the time to each other," Young said.
Women often have higher expectations of themselves and internalize their problems, blaming themselves for a bad grade or for not receiving a promotion, Young said.
Young offered several suggestions for overcoming the impostor syndrome.
One solution is to "break the silence" by sharing feelings of low self-worth with peers, Young said.
When she was in graduate school, Young said being part of "a support group for impostors" helped her realize that her fellow graduate students also suffered from the same feeling.
Renaming insecurities can also be helpful, she said. Instead of saying, "I'm really scared," for example, an individual should say "I'm really excited," because, while the human body has the same reactions to fear and excitement, fear carries a negative connotation.
Perfectionists should realize that their work will never be without fault, and should strive instead to produce work that is of high enough quality to be submitted, Young said.
Most importantly, individuals should realize that their insecurities are normal, she said.
The 30 percent of the population that does not suffer from these anxieties is abnormal and has an "irrational self confidence," she said.
The lecture, attended primarily by graduate students, was part of the 2009 Graduate Appreciation Week.
Other events included a panel on Friday featuring graduate students currently writing dissertations and "Having a Successful Career in Academia: Advice from Dartmouth Faculty" on Tuesday.
