Lyle's research on recidivism contains a variable that measures the number of offenses an individual was charged with prior to being paroled.This count of offenses is a(n):
A)continuous variable.
B)discrete variable.
C)dichotomous variable.
D)categorical variable.
E)nominal variable.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

A count of offenses is a discrete variable because it can only take on integer values, and cannot be divided into fractions or decimals. Continuous variables, on the other hand, can take on any value within a range (e.g. weight or height). Dichotomous variables have only two categories (e.g. yes/no), categorical variables can have more than two categories (e.g. favorite color), and nominal variables are used to label or categorize things without any numerical value (e.g. gender or race).

Lyle's Research on Recidivism Contains a Variable That Measures the Number