Impostor Syndrome (also known as impostorism, fraud syndrome or the impostor experience) is a pervasive feeling of insecurity, self-doubt, or fraudulence despite often overwhelming evidence to the contrary. It usually strikes intelligent and successful individuals and it often comes to surface after an especially notable accomplishment – be it an admission to a prestigious university, winning an award, earning a promotion or obtaining public acclaim.

Inspired by the sociocognitive approaches to learning, Rolland Viau  proposes an innovative motivation model in the context of acquiring information and completing goals.

Although the model has been initially designed for the learning student, its structures can be just as easily and successfully applied to any situation where an individual is faced with a challenge and a need to be completing a goal.