Questioning Psychological Constructs: Current Issues and Proposed Changes

Abstract

Constructs are central to psychology. We describe two current trends as responses to dissatisfactions with the abstract nature of constructs and with uncertain and variable research findings: a trend away from constructs toward specific notions and effects, and sharper construct definitions with improved construct measurement. We explain that the issues in psychology reflect the complexity and variable nature of psychological phenomena. Rather than following the trends, we propose a reformulation of the construct notion to accommodate complexity and uncertainty. To provide background, we describe the historical development and epistemology of constructs, and highlight the explanatory and integrative role of constructs. Our reformulation implies that constructs are (1) composite, (2) organized in a hierarchy with overlap, (3) variable, with heterogeneous measurement results. Methods can be and are being developed accordingly. We close with considerations for further debate.

Keywords:

• constructs
• variability
• uncertainty
• measurement
• replication

This article is referred to by:

Constructs in Psychology: Lessons from the Philosophy of Science

Mind the (Construct-Measurement) Gap

Can New Constructs Overcome the Old Challenge of Coordinating Psychological Theory and Psychometric Methods?

What Are Constructs? Ontological Nature, Epistemological Challenges, Theoretical Foundations and Key Sources of Misunderstandings and Confusions

Realism, Behaviorism, and Psychological Theory

Questionable Research Practices Distort Impressions of Reality: Comment on Questioning Psychological Constructs

View responses to this article:

A Call for Keeping Doors Open and for Parallel Efforts

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Although network models are often presented as different than and advantageous compared to latent variable models, it has also been suggested that the two approaches have much in common and reduce to each other in at least some circumstances (see Burns et al., 2022).

2 Note that for Doob, attitudes were the intervening variable. We are not referring here to the implicit attitude test.

3 An example of heterogeneity is the concept of force. That there are four kinds of force is a frustration for physicists.