Question: Psychological response of firefighters. The Journal of Human Stress (Summer 1987) reported on a study of ‘‘psychological response of firefighters to chemical fire.'' The researchers used multiple regression to predict emotional distress as a function of the following independent variables. Identify each independent variable as quantitative or qualitative. For qualitative variables, suggest several levels that might be observed. For quantitative variables, give a range of values (levels) for which the variable might be observed.
(a) Number of preincident psychological symptoms
(b) Years of experience
(c) Cigarette smoking behavior
(d) Level of social support
(e) Marital status
(f) Age
(g) Ethnic status
(h) Exposure to a chemical fire
(i) Education level
(j) Distance lived from site of incident
(k) Gender