Construct

Research

An unobservable concept (e.g. motivation, trust) studied indirectly via measurable indicators — the process is called operationalization.

Sources

1. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — “Measurement in Science”, Eran Tal (first published 15 June 2015; substantive revision 7 August 2020) plato.stanford.edu accessed 22 September 2026

Eran Tal’s Stanford Encyclopedia entry on measurement describes a construct, in psychometrics, as an “abstract representation of the latent attribute intended to be measured”, one that “reflects a hypothesis […] that a variety of behaviors will correlate with one another”. That second clause is the useful one for study design: a construct is not just a label for something unobservable, it is a testable claim that its indicators hang together — which is exactly what operationalisation has to earn.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is cited because it carries a named author and a dated revision for each entry, so the claim is attributable to a person on a date — which is the test this lexicon applies to reference sources, and the reason an open-edit encyclopedia is not used. The application to research practice above is this lexicon’s reading.

Deeper treatment: this term also has a full entry in the Business Library.

Related terms

• Abbreviation
• Abstract
• Abstraction
• Academic Database
• Analysis
• Annotation

From the AJG lexicon archive (July 2026).