The Importance of Systematic Reflection: Implications of a Naturalistic Model of Research

As I bumped about in the field not knowing what I was doing I often felt-incorrectly, as it turned out-that I was making a terrible mess of things, that my project was doomed, and that I should give up the entire enterprise immediately. This negativism came from my persistent feeling that, despite my having had a research question when I started, I didn't truly know what I was doing there. In part, my gloom signaled the continuing struggle to clarify the intellectual goals of the project.