Measurement Maturity Levels: A Construct-Level Framework for Evaluating Psychological Measurement Readiness

<p>Psychological science has developed robust standards for evaluating measurement instruments, yet lacks a systematic approach for assessing the measurability of constructs themselves. This paper introduces the Measurement Maturity Level (MML) framework, a construct-level classification system that evaluates the current state of measurement across five levels, from well-established to novel constructs. This work addresses a previously unformalized layer in psychological measurement: the explicit evaluation of construct-level measurability. The framework operationalizes level assignment through a structured decision tree based on explicit criteria, including presence in the literature, availability of instruments, reliability, validity, and extent of empirical use. MML is designed to be framework-agnostic and applicable across domains. To demonstrate its utility, the framework is applied to a dataset of 343 constructs spanning multiple types of psychological phenomena. The results reveal substantial variation in measurement maturity, highlighting systematic differences across construct types and identifying gaps between theoretical constructs and measurement capabilities. The MML framework introduces measurement maturity as an explicit dimension of analysis, supports "measurement readiness audits," and provides a tool for improving transparency, prioritizing research efforts, and advancing cumulative measurement practices in psychological science. Without explicit evaluation of measurement maturity, comparisons across constructs remain implicitly biased and may lead to overconfident interpretations.</p>