The cognitive approach towards psychometric scales : when difficult is easier than easy

Psychometric scales are used in situations in which a certain feature of the tested person cannot be measured directly, but can be estimated (as a so-called hidden - or implicit - construct or variable) on the basis of the answers to the questions (items) on a scale. The cognitive approach enables us to have a more profound insight into the psychometric measurement process which is in fact a complex process of communication between people involved in the measurement. It does not require abandoning the standard statistical methods, including Rasch procedures based on the IRT psychometric measurement theory (Item Response Theory), but enables statistics to again perform its proper role of a tool used to confirm the validity of the conclusions of the psychological examination.