The second edition of The Hogan Guide is presented as a substantial practitioner update: Hogan says it refreshes norms and interpretive guidance for the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI), Hogan Development Survey (HDS), and Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI), and adds feedback and coaching models. For someone reading a work assessment report, this is useful context, not proof that their own scores changed or that a particular employment decision is justified. The accessible records describe the changes but do not provide a full comparison of the two books or identify which norm sample applies to an individual report.
What does the second edition say it changed?
Hogan’s December 2025 announcement lists five areas: updated norms and guidance across HPI, HDS, and MVPI; refreshed explanations of scales and subscales; new feedback and coaching models; integration of more recent research and assessment-design, scoring, and interpretation innovations; and a more accessible practitioner-focused format. The MIT Press Bookstore’s description independently identifies updated content and interpretation for the three inventories, plus a primer on giving feedback and coaching from their results. The sources name Robert Hogan and Joyce Hogan as the second edition’s authors.
That is a meaningful summary of the edition’s intended scope. HPI, HDS, and MVPI are separate inventories, so the claim covers more than one report family. But the announcement does not name particular scales that changed, explain how scores are calculated, identify the norm samples or collection dates, or show which recommendations were rewritten. “Latest research” is the publisher’s description, not a bibliography in the public announcement. The safe reading is that Hogan reports a broad refresh, while the accessible summary leaves the particulars open.
The feedback emphasis matters to readers because a score description is not the same thing as a conversation about how a tendency appears in a role. A coaching model can help frame questions and development discussions. It does not, by itself, establish that a score is reliable for every individual, that an interpretation fits a specific job, or that the person will behave in one fixed way. Those conclusions require evidence and context beyond an edition announcement.
Sources: Hogan Releases Second Edition of the Hogan Guide; The Hogan Guide: Interpretation and Use of the Hogan Inventories, MIT Press Bookstore listing
How does that compare with the first edition?
Open Library’s catalog record describes the 2007 first edition as covering all three inventories, scale-by-scale interpretation, interpretation of patterns within and across inventories, feedback, development planning, and coaching. The 2025 bookstore description says the second edition contains updates to the inventories’ content and interpretation and offers a feedback-and-coaching primer. So feedback and coaching are not wholly new subjects: they already appear in the first edition’s listed scope. The reported change is a refresh of interpretive material and the addition of new models, not the invention of feedback as a topic.
The catalog lists 333 pages for the 2007 edition; the bookstore lists 172 for the second. That difference cannot tell us whether the new guide is more concise, less comprehensive, or reorganized. Page counts depend on layout, type size, and format, and neither record supplies a line-by-line contents comparison. The first-edition entry is catalog metadata rather than an inspected full text; the second-edition listing and release are descriptions rather than the book itself. A precise chapter-level account would require access to both editions.
This comparison is useful precisely because it keeps the claim modest. The second edition is described as updated and more practitioner-focused, with refreshed interpretation and new feedback/coaching models. The public descriptions do not establish which material was removed, which advice changed direction, or how much of the update reflects changed assessment forms versus revised explanation. Readers should treat those as unanswered questions rather than fill the gaps from the page counts or promotional language.
Sources: The Hogan Guide: Interpretation and Use of the Hogan Inventories, MIT Press Bookstore listing; The Hogan Guide, 2007 edition, Open Library
What does an updated norm or interpretation mean for your report?
A norm is a reference group used to interpret where a score sits relative to other people’s scores. Hogan’s 2012 assessment-evaluation guide discusses local and cross-cultural norm procedures. Its example says a multinational organization may need one common multilingual norm to compare applicants and that such a norm can be useful for that purpose. This is a description of the guide’s norm procedures, not evidence about the norm samples or collection dates used for the second edition or any particular current report. Hogan’s 2025 announcement says norms were updated but does not identify those samples or dates.
For a report reader, the practical question is not simply “Are the norms updated?” Ask which inventory and report version you received, what norm reference is named, and whether the feedback provider can explain its population and date. If the report gives a percentile, it expresses a position relative to that reference group; it is not the probability that a behavior will occur or a direct measure of job competence. A change to a norm reference could affect comparative interpretation even when the person’s underlying responses stay the same. But the available edition announcement does not establish that a particular report was rescored under a new norm.
The same distinction applies to interpretation. A revised explanation may help a practitioner connect scale information to a work conversation, but a better explanation is not itself new evidence about the person. The AERA page describes the Standards for Educational & Psychological Testing, jointly developed with APA and NCME, as addressing test development and use in employment and other settings. That broader professional context supports a basic discipline: match claims to the intended use and evidence. It does not certify this book or any individual report.
If you are comparing an older report with a newer one, avoid treating a changed percentile or description as a personal change until you know whether the instrument, scoring, norm reference, language form, and report version also changed. Ask the assessor to separate the observed score from the interpretation and to explain what comparison is being made. This check prevents an edition update from being mistaken for a change in your personality or work behavior.
Sources: Hogan Releases Second Edition of the Hogan Guide; Assessment Evaluation Guide; Standards for Educational & Psychological Testing
What is the fair verdict for a work-report reader?
The second edition appears to be a substantial refresh for people who interpret Hogan inventories and give feedback: the publisher reports updated norms and scale guidance, refreshed interpretation, and added feedback/coaching models across HPI, HDS, and MVPI. For a report reader, its most practical promise is a current reference for discussion. The public evidence does not show that every score is more accurate, that older reports are invalid, or that a new score should change a work decision.
A sensible reading order is: first identify which inventory and report you have; next check the norm group, date, and score format printed or supplied with it; then ask what evidence supports the specific work-related interpretation and what the interpretation does not claim. In a feedback conversation, ask for a concrete example and a counterexample: when has this tendency helped, when has it created friction, and what else in the work setting may explain the same event? That turns a broad label into something observable and revisable.
The strongest reason to be cautious is also clear: a publisher announcement cannot substantiate every revision, and a catalog comparison cannot reveal what changed inside chapters. Access to both full editions or detailed change notes could sharpen this conclusion. Until then, the practical verdict is that the second edition is reported to update the guide’s interpretive and coaching support, while your own report still needs to be read against its instrument, norms, purpose, and circumstances. If you are left wondering how two work tendencies combine in your own decisions or collaboration, the live Work Pattern Report offers a separate low-stakes self-reflection prompt set; it supplies no norms or job recommendation.
Sources: Hogan Releases Second Edition of the Hogan Guide; The Hogan Guide: Interpretation and Use of the Hogan Inventories, MIT Press Bookstore listing; Standards for Educational & Psychological Testing
Questions readers ask
Does the second edition mean my older Hogan report is out of date?
Not by itself. The public announcement says the guide has updated norms and interpretation, but it does not say which reports were rescored or that earlier reports are invalid. Check the report’s inventory, version, norm reference, and date with the feedback provider.
Can I compare a percentile from an older Hogan report with one from a newer report?
Only after confirming that the inventory, scoring, norm reference, and report version are comparable. A percentile depends on its norm group, so a different reference group can change the comparison even if the underlying responses are similar.
Sources and notes
- Hogan Releases Second Edition of the Hogan Guide
Hogan's release lists the second edition's stated changes: norms, interpretation, feedback models, and practitioner-focused presentation.
- The Hogan Guide: Interpretation and Use of the Hogan Inventories, MIT Press Bookstore listing
The bookstore record describes second-edition coverage, the three inventories, and its feedback and coaching primer.
- The Hogan Guide, 2007 edition, Open Library
This catalog entry gives first-edition metadata and lists interpretation, feedback, development planning, and coaching among its described topics.
- Assessment Evaluation Guide
Hogan's 2012 guide describes norm procedures, including the usefulness of a common multilingual norm for a multinational organization comparing applicants; it does not identify the samples or dates for the second edition's norm updates.
- Standards for Educational & Psychological Testing
AERA describes the joint testing standards' scope as covering test development and use, including employment settings.
Apply it to your work
Turn broad work-style language into questions you can test
From this guide: A Hogan guide can support a feedback conversation, while the remaining question is how your own decision, planning, feedback, or collaboration tendencies show up in a particular work situation.
The guide's edition update does not settle how a broad interpretation fits your own choices at work. If you want a structured place to reflect on how you decide, plan, handle ambiguity, respond to feedback, and collaborate, the Work Pattern Report walks through those continuums and how they may combine. It is a low-stakes self-report for reflection, with no norms or job recommendation. Use the observations to prepare a more specific conversation about the role or decision in front of you.