Referring to a psychological trait as a construct means that it is an informed, scientific concept developed to describe or explain behavior.
A construct derives its name from the fact that it is a mental construction, derived from the general scientific process: observing natural phenomena, inferring the common features of those observations, and constructing a label for the observed commonality or the underlying cause of the commonality. Any given construct derives its scientific value from the shared meaning it represents for different people. Constructs are hypothetical, and the building blocks of scientific theories. Constructs help research and applied psychologists to summarize the complex array of observed behaviours, emotions, and thoughts that people produce in their day-to-day activities.
