What is a Construct?"What is a construct?" is a question commonly asked by students who are new to research. In social sciences, psychological constructs are more complex ideas that we as humans form in order to summarize observations about things that we cannot see directly.Mentally, we can visualize concrete objects, such as a computer, a book, or other item that we can see and touch. These things are directly observable and we can easily describe and measure them. But many of those things we deal with in everyday life are not so clearly conceived. It is much more of a challenge to visualize "job satisfaction", "citizenship", or "motivation". These are sometimes referred to as higher level abstractions within our minds, or psychological constructs. In social sciences, we are often faced with measuring these ideas that are not directly measurable. But we are able to do so by describing specific qualities which, taken together, define a construct. For example, academic achievement is broken down into grades for courses, standardized tests, and total GPA. Each of these measures is based upon specific knowledge and skills that, together, are measurable. So, by measuring these qualities as we define them, we also define and measure the psychological construct. Common constructs that research must define and measure include: reading ability, emotional intelligence, athletic ability, problem-solving ability, physical fitness, and job burnout. Related pages: Research Designs Research Terminology Scientific Method Research What is a Theory?
|
