This term refers to our perceived cognitive distance between ourselves and other instances (people, events, times). When we perceive the psychological distance to be large, we focus on the big picture and think in abstraction and desirability. When the perceived distance is small, we think more concretely.
Citation: Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2003). Temporal construal. Psychological Review, 110 (3), 403–421.