Chapter 13: Applications of Multiple Regression in Psychological Research

Razia Azen & David Budescu

Applications of multiple regression in psychological research The regression model was conceptualized in the late nineteenth century by Sir Francis Galton, who was studying how characteristics are inherited from one generation to the next (e.g., Stanton, 2001; Stigler, 1997). Galton's goal was to model and predict the characteristics of offspring based on the characteristics of their parents. The term ‘regression’ came from the observation that extreme values (or outliers) in one generation produced offspring that were closer to the mean in the next generation; hence, ‘regression to the mean’ occurred (the original terminology used was regression to ‘mediocrity’). Galton also recognized that previous generations (older than the parents) could influence the characteristics of the offspring as well, and this led him to conceptualize the multiple-regression model. His colleague, Karl Pearson, formalized the mathematics of regression models (e.g., Stanton, 2001). The multiple-regression (MR) model involves one criterion (also referred to as ...

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