Confidence, Happiness, and Passion

The reflections of Janice Bartké Thompson

“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.”  — Mark Twain

Not to cast shade on Mark Twain, but you need more in life than ignorance and confidence, for ignorance is bliss, and confidence is the domain of fools. Confidence is a word that seeks to describe a belief, a calculation of truth,  or a level of assurance, yet there are few truths and no assurances. Beliefs are speculative and subjective. Confidence is a  psychological state that is polar, fluid,  and defined within a contextual moment. Confidence is varietal. The generative psyche can view oneself with a delusional narcissistic aggrandizement manifest as overt self-confidence, or the individual can have observable self-doubt manifest as a lack of confidence. Confidence requires an understanding of conscious reality. One’s confidence in a choice of a dissertation topic remains polar and fluid true to the nature of confidence: in the moment, I have a degree of confidence in the chosen topic with the expectation that confidence will be short-lived, for  I am not that ignorant.

One’s observation of the developmental process of selecting a dissertation topic suggests that it is similar to chemical titration. One’s interest in developing the mathematical formulae used in quantitative analysis is intriguing and, based on preliminary literature reviews, is controversial among researchers. Questions present themselves that require further scholarship. Finding literature on quantitative analytic procedures has been well investigated; however, the literature review is incomplete, no research questions have been formulated, and no hypothesis tendered,  for the understanding and internalizing of the material is preliminary and daunting. The titration is incomplete, and no conclusions have yet been drawn.

My interest in psychometric scales falls square upon the why and question of this reflection. Confidence, passion, and happiness are scales; I fall somewhere among the variables. Please note that passion is not in my vocabulary concerning the dissertation topic. The calculated intended application of time, money, and motive to succeed better describes my approach. How happy am I  with my proposed research methods? Happy is not a good word to describe my research methods: Concerned, cautious, attentive, worried, and developing are better descriptors.