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Read my lips: No new constructs! Construct proliferation as a threat to the future of I-O psychology

N. Bowling,V. Sessa,Jonathan A. Shaffer,G. Banks

Published 2026 in Industrial and Organizational Psychology

ABSTRACT

Industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology recognizes dozens of different constructs, including several individual differences, environmental variables, job attitudes, and work-related behaviors. It is, of course, necessary to retain a variety of constructs in order to adequately capture the complexities, subtleties, and diversity of work-related phenomena. But do the many constructs recognized by I-O psychologists all serve a useful purpose? Or has our field been too eager to welcome redundant, unnecessary constructs into the fold? And if I-O psychology has embraced too many unnecessary constructs, then what—if anything—should we do about it? In the current focal article, we first discuss when and why construct proliferation occurs. We then advance a nuanced perspective—one that asserts that construct proliferation is occasionally “good,” usually “bad,” largely inevitable, and often incentivized. We conclude by calling for a temporary moratorium on the introduction of new constructs into the field of I-O psychology, and we offer suggestions for how the field can address construct proliferation. We hope that the current article leads to a fruitful discussion of how to most effectively solve the construct proliferation dilemma.

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