Hogan Personality Inventory Manual

1. Introduction

The Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) is a measure of normal personality. That statement raises two questions. First, what is personality? And second, how can it be measured? Regarding nature, personality concerns two big things: (a) generalizations about human nature—what people are like way down deep; and (b) systematic accounts of individual differences—which differences among people are important and how do they arise?

1.1 Applying Socioanalytic Theory to Performance at Work

With regard to generalizations about human nature, the early pioneers of personality psychology (e.g., Freud, Jung, Adler, Horney, Erikson) argued that the most important generalization made is that everyone is neurotic—which means that the most important psychological problem in life is to overcome one's neurosis. However, that generalization is empirically false—for example, the base rate of neuroticism is too low to be a general characteristic (Kessler, Berglund, Demler, Jin, Merikangas, & Walters, 2005; Renaud & Estes, 1961).

Socioanalytic theory (Hogan, 1983, 1991, 1996) is intended to explain individual differences in interpersonal effectiveness, and is rooted in the long tradition of interpersonal psychology (Carson, 1969; Leary, 1957; Sullivan, 1953; Wiggins, 1979). The theory is based on the following five assumptions: personality is best understood in terms of human evolution; people evolved as group-living and culture-using animals; the most important human motives facilitate group living and enhance individual survival; social interaction involves negotiating for acceptance and status; and, finally, some people are more effective at this than others (Hogan, 1996; Hogan, Jones, & Cheek, 1985). The theory is based on two generalizations relevant to organizational behavior: people always live (work) in groups, and groups are always structured in terms of status hierarchies. These generalizations suggest the presence of two broad motive patterns that translate into behavior designed to "get along" with other members of the group, and to "get ahead" or achieve status vis á vis other members of the group. Getting along and getting ahead are familiar themes in personality psychology (cf. Adler, 1939; Bakan, 1966; Rank, 1945; Wiggins & Trapnell, 1996). Their importance is justified in Darwinian terms: people who cannot get along with others and who lack status and power have reduced opportunities for reproductive success.

Socioanalytic theory specifies that personality should be defined from the perspectives of the actor and the observer. Personality from the actor's view is a person's identity, which is manifested in terms of the strategies a person uses to pursue acceptance and status. Identity controls an actor's social behavior. Personality from the observer's view is a person's reputation and is defined in terms of trait evaluations—conforming, helpful, talkative, competitive, calm, curious, and so forth. Reputation reflects an observer's view of the actor's characteristic ways of behaving in public. Reputation is the link between the actor's efforts to achieve acceptance and status and how those efforts are evaluated by observers. Reputation describes a person's behavior; identity explains it.

From the lexical perspective (Goldberg, 1981), the development of the Five-Factor Model (FFM) (cf. Digman, 1990; Goldberg, 1992; John, 1990, p. 72; McCrae & Costa, 1987) is based on 75 years of factor analytic research on the structure of trait terms and peer ratings (cf. Thurstone, 1934; Tupes & Christal, 1961; Norman, 1963). The FFM suggests that we think about and describe one another in terms of five broad trait-based themes (see Table 1.1).

These factors are a taxonomy of reputation (cf. Digman, 1990; John, 1990; Saucier & Goldberg, 1996), and are labeled as follows: Factor I, Extraversion or Surgency; Factor II, Agreeableness; Factor III, Conscientiousness; Factor IV, Emotional Stability; and Factor V, Intellect/Openness to Experience (John, 1990). Because reputations are a rough index of the amount of acceptance and status a person enjoys (Foa & Foa, 1974, 1980; Wiggins, 1979), and because reputations are encoded in FFM terms (Saucier & Goldberg, 1996), it follows that the five factors are also evaluations of acceptance and status (Digman, 1997). Digman (1997) concluded that two higher-order factors organize the FFM; he notes that these two broad factors precisely parallel earlier dichotomies such as social interests versus superiority striving (Adler, 1939), communion versus agency (Bakan, 1966; Wiggins, 1991), union versus individualism (Rank, 1945), status versus popularity (Hogan, 1983), and intimacy versus power (McAdams, 1985).

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Excerpted from Hogan Personality Inventory Manual by Robert Hogan and Joyce Hogan. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Excerpts are provided by Hogan Assessment Systems, Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Robert Hogan, Ph.D.
Robert Hogan, president of Hogan Assessment Systems, is an authority on personality assessment, leadership, and organizational effectiveness. He was a psychology professor for more than 30 years at The University of Tulsa and at Johns Hopkins University. Hogan is the author of more than 300 journal articles, chapters and books, including "Personality and the Fate of Organizations," published in 2006. Hogan received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in personality assessment. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology.

Joyce Hogan, Ph.D.
Joyce Hogan, vice president of Hogan Assessment Systems, is responsible for the development of assessment products and directs research projects to validate customized employment testing programs. Hogan served for 22 years on the faculty at The Johns Hopkins University and at The University of Tulsa. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland. Hogan is an international authority on personnel selection, and serves as a consultant and expert witness regarding employment discrimination for the U.S. Department of Justice.

"Both the new HPI and the new HDS manuals are clearly a career's worth of wisdom. I've never seen test manuals that contain knowledge, understanding, and the data to justify both.

Measurement should drive theory and theory should then redesign measurement. The more valid the measurement tool, the more able we should be to understand and predict the phenomenon, i.e., build the theory. For too long in psychology, theory drove measurement without much information being used to correct the theory. With some tools in psychology, measurement stood on its own with no attempt at understanding, just categorizing. The Hogan Personality Inventory and the Hogan Development Survey have dramatically enhanced our ability to predict performance in organizations. Through their insights into job and leadership performance, and into the theory of personality, we are far better able to develop the personal and interpersonal competencies of leaders."

James M. Fico, Ph.D.
Consulting Psychologist

Hogan Personality Inventory Manual Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction

  • 1.1 Applying Socioanalytic Theory to Per formance at Work
  • 1.2 Measurement: Personality Assessment and the Five-Factor Model
  • 1.3 Measurement: Assessing Job Per formance using Multidimensional Models
  • 1.4 A Viewpoint on Measurement
  • 1.5 What to Measure

• 2. Inventory Construction, Reliability, And Confirmation

  • 2.1 Early Development
  • 2.2 Later Development
  • 2.3 Most Recent Technical Developments
  • 2.4 Definitions of the Scales
  • 2.5 Composition of the Personality Scales; The 1992 Factor Analysis
  • 2.6 Composition of the Personality Scales: The 2007 Confirmatory Factor Analysis
  • 2.7 HPI Scale Distributions and Reliability
  • 2.8 HPI Test-Retest Reliability

• 3. Validity

  • 3.1 Correlations With Other Tests
  • 3.2 Interpretive Summaries of the HPI Scale Correlations with Other Tests
  • 3.3 HPI Correlates of Organizational Behavior
  • 3.4 HPI Validity for Personnel Selection in Seven Job Families
    • 3.4.1 Managers & Executives Job Family
    • 3.4.2 Professionals Job Family
    • 3.4.3 Technicians & Specialists Job Family
    • 3.4.4 Operations & Trades Job Family
    • 3.4.5 Sales & Customer Support Job Family
    • 3.4.6 Administrative & Clerical Job Family
    • 3.4.7 Service & Support Job Family

• 4. Interpretation

  • 4.1 Adjustment
  • 4.2 Ambition
  • 4.3 Sociability
  • 4.4 Interpersonal Sensitivity
  • 4.5 Prudence
  • 4.6 Inquisitive
  • 4.7 Learning Approach
  • 4.8 Adjectival Correlates of HPI Scale Scores

• 5. Administering the HPI

  • 5.1 Key Features of the Web-Based Platform
  • 5.2 Completing the HPI Using the Online Internet System
  • 5.3 Participant's Informed Consent
  • 5.4 Using International Translations of the HPI
  • 5.5 Accommodating Individuals with Disabilities
  • 5.6 Frequently Asked Questions
  • 5.7 Alternative Testing Solutions

• 6. Compilation Of Norms

  • 6.1 Characteristics of the 2005 HPI Norming Sample
  • 6.2 Demographics of the Norming Sample
  • 6.3 Descriptive Statistics of the Norming Sample

• 7. References

• Appendix A: 2005 HPI Norming Sample Scale Scores

• Appendix B: 1995 HPI Norms (N=21,573)

• Appendix C: References For Transportability Of Validity Within Job Families

• Appendix D: Correlations of HPI Scales With Adjectival Descriptions By Observers