In basic terms, the difference is that qualitative research collects data in the form of language, and quantitative research collects data in the form of numbers.
For example, “How satisfied are you with your life on a scale of one to ten?” is quantitative.
And “How satisfied are you with your life?” is qualitative.
Qualitative data does not necessarily have to involve asking participants questions and recording the response – it could be a literature search, review of diary entries – anything that is linguistic in format.
