“Confidence,” said Joyce Ehrlinger, the University of Washington psychologist, sighing in sympathy, “has become a vague, almost stock term that can refer to any number of things. I can see why you’d be confused.” “General confidence is an attitude, a way you approach the world,” suggested Caroline Miller, a best-selling author and positive psychology coach. “More specifically, self-confidence is a sense that you can master something.” “One way to think about confidence,” said Brenda Major, the UC Santa Barbara social psychologist, “is how sure are you that you have the skills that you need to
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