What are constructs? And why are there so many confusions about them?

What is it about?

What actually are constructs? Why are they so central to psychology? What is their explanatory value? (How) can we ‘measure’ constructs? And why are there so many misunderstandings and confusions about them? These are obvious questions for which many psychologists are still seeking answers and that are addressed in this article. The article provides a brief summary of the most elaborated theory about constructs that exists till today—Kelly's Personal Construct Theory. Although all psychologists are using constructs, surprisingly many are still not familiar with this sophisticated theory. Building on Kelly's theory, the article highlights that constructs are abstractions that we develop in our minds in both—everyday life and science. It shows that, in science, constructs help us to efficiently summarize various study phenomena that actually never occur together and that are only thought together as a joint entity given the shared meaning ascribed to them (e.g., 'poverty', 'democracy', 'well-being', 'personality', 'intelligence'). Constructs and these observable phenomena to which they refer (their referents), however, are different kinds of things and should therefore not be confused. But often constructs are mistaken for the study phenomena to which they refer themselves. That is, the study phenomena are confused with the conceptual means that we use for studying them. This misleads the interpretation of findings—and thus, theory development.

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Photo by Declan Sun on Unsplash

Photo by Declan Sun on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Constructs are central to psychology. And yet, relevance and role of constructs for psychological theories, findings and practices are still debated and even questioned. Common misunderstandings mislead result interpretation and hinder theory development.

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