The Hogan personality inventory assesses our 'self-presentations'. It suggests our personalities are shaped and constructed, not based on memory or innate traits. The socio-analytic theory upon which it is based assumes people are unconsciously motivated to engage in social interaction, aim for acceptance and recognition by others, and that we all aim at some level for power and status. 'Reputation' is therefore the aspect that can be measured.

The questions aim to tap into this self-presentation and the original version leads to a five factor model, with sub-scales. The later developments resulted in seven primary scales (more on those later) and a validity scale. Scores on the validity scale can give some indication of how 'truthful' people are when responding on the test, although can also indicate they are experiencing problems (e.g. stress) which may be invalidating the results (not just 'lies').

It may be worth doing a compare and contrast of the HPI and the NEO, and discussing that, to aid understanding.

kind regards
Stephanie

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Dr Stephanie Morgan
Crosslight Management
www.crosslight.co.uk