A construct is a theoretical concept which we have created in our minds through our perception or understanding of a situation. Different people can look at the same situation (the same set of facts) and come up with completely different conclusions about the matter. As a result, they may hold differing viewpoints and opinions about the very same facts, and be utterly convinced that their viewpoints are valid! What our mind does when it perceives any situation is to distort and organize the information in a way that fits our existing beliefs and worldviews. It does so automatically by default, so much so that we often do not realize the underlying filing process that has taken place. Whenever we attempt to “file” or “categorize” something into broad categories for ease of retrieval, we invariably lose a certain level of detail while gaining an artificial “structure” that holds everything together.
Richard Dotts