A researcher is interested in studying the effects of smoking and alcohol use on post-operative complications in the hospital. The criterion variable is categorical with only two levels (complications: Yes or No). Smoking is operationalized as number of packs smoked per week, and alcohol use is measured as number of alcoholic beverages consumed per week. What would be the appropriate complex statistic to use?
A) Multiple regression
B) Discriminant analysis
C) Factor analysis
D) MANOVA

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Discriminant analysis would be the appropriate complex statistic to use because the criterion variable is categorical with only two levels, and there are multiple predictor variables (smoking and alcohol use) that are also continuous. Discriminant analysis is used to determine whether the predictor variables can distinguish between the two groups (complications: Yes or No) and to identify which predictor variables are the most important in predicting group membership.

A Researcher Is Interested in Studying the Effects of Smoking