The Theory of Construct and Instrument Development Process: Supplementing Human Judgment with Natural Language Processing Techniques

The construct and instrument development process relies significantly on human judgment in the initial stages of the process, specifically in developing construct definition statements, and in developing instruments with high construct and content validity. Natural language processing techniques can be employed to support human judgment and improve the quality of constructs and instruments employed in research. The paper describes the use of such techniques and presents illustrative results from the use of those techniques. The illustrations support our premise that the use of those techniques can improve the rigor of the process and improve the quality of constructs and instruments employed in research.