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CONSTRUCTS AND INDICATORS: AN ONTOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
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DOI：10.25300/MISQ/2021/15999.png)
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摘要
En 中文
Constructs and indicators are central to the efforts of many researchers who seek to build and test theories and articulate rich narratives about real-world phenomena. For this reason, an extensive discourse exists about their nature. Increasingly, this discourse has become fraught with controversy. Using Bunge's (1977, 1979) ontology, I examine the nature of constructs and indicators as they are discussed in the extant literature. I define these concepts precisely, disentangle conceptual from measurement issues, and point to ways that discourse about them could better proceed. I show that unidimensional constructs, multidimensional constructs, dimensions, and indicators are all properties in general of a class of things. I also show that only three types of indicators exist-synonyms of the focal construct and succeeding or preceding properties in a pre-order of properties that includes the focal construct. I examine ontologically the notions of content validity, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and internal-consistency reliability and show their problematic nature. I introduce two new concepts, scope validity and the level of concomitance of indicators, that have rigorous ontological foundations. Together, they provide an improved foundation for assessing the construct validity of a set of indicators.
Keyword:
Ontology
unidimensional constructs
multidimensional constructs
reflective indicators
formative indicators
convergent validity
discriminant validity
reliability
content validity
construct validity
scope validity
level of concomitance
