Statistics 101: What is Simple Linear Regression?
What is regression? Regression refers to a collection of techniques for modeling one variable (the dependent variable or DV), as a function of some other variables (the independent variables or IVs). Different regression techniques should be applied for different types of DVs. If the DV is a dichotomy (like living vs. dead), then the most common method is logistic regression. If the DV has multiple categories (e.g. Republican, Democrat, Independent) then the usual method is either multinomial or ordinal logistic regression. If the DV is a count (such as number of times something happens) then there are Poisson regression and negative binomial regression. If the DV is a time to an event (such as time to death) then there are a range of techniques known as survival analysis. There are other varieties too. But the most common type of DV is one that is continuous, or nearly so, such as weight, IQ, income, and so on. What is linear regression? When the DV is a continuous variable, or nearly
