PERSONALITY AS A PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSTRUCT: AN EXPANDED READING THROUGH CONSTRUCT LOGIC
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56238/revgeov17n2-063Keywords:
Personality, Psychological Constructs, Epistemology in PsychologyAbstract
The study of personality occupies a central position in scientific Psychology, yet it remains marked by conceptual ambiguities, theoretical reductionisms, and insufficiently critical uses in applied contexts. Considering this problem, the present work is justified by the need to understand personality as a psychological construct rather than as a natural entity or a fixed individual essence. The objective is to critically analyze the personality construct through the logic of psychological constructs, broadening its epistemological, theoretical, methodological, and ethical understanding. To this end, a theoretical essay is conducted, grounded in a critical review of classical and contemporary literature on personality, encompassing empirical evidence, psychometrics, and behavioral genetics, with particular attention to the model proposed by Silva (2003, 2010), which systematizes fundamental issues for the examination of psychological constructs. Thus, it is observed that personality presents a multidimensional nature, a dynamic structure, probabilistic biological bases, relative stability across the life span, and consistent explanatory value, provided it is interpreted in a contextualized and non-deterministic manner. The results indicate that the logic of psychological constructs fosters the cumulativeness of knowledge, the integration of explanatory levels, and the responsible use of measurement instruments. It is concluded that understanding personality as a construct strengthens its scientific status, expands its theoretical and applied usefulness, and contributes to ethically grounded psychological practices, especially in contemporary contexts marked by complexity and uncertainty.
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