Certain methodological techniques blend quantitative and qualitative elements, defying explicit characterization as either. Placing focus on the distinction between methods for data collection and methods for analysis ameliorates this confusion and identifies the occasionally ambiguous quantitative/qualitative designation of highly convergent methods as largely subject to researchers’ goals. We use free listing and prototype analysis, two methods which are variously characterized as either quantitative or qualitative, to investigate the conceptual relationship between love, romantic love, and sex. A methodological framework is presented in which open-ended questionnaires and structured interviews are analyzed comparatively to clarify the relationship between the three concepts. Results suggest that romantic love is conceptualized as a synthesis of prototypical "caring" love and noncrude attributes of sex.