Critical Analysis- the Evolutionary Origins of Friendship Essay

There is not much that separates our kind from lower species of life. Our intellect, communication skills and opposable thumbs are a few of the many advantages to being a human. Human’s ability to construct a deep and rewarding lifelong friendship is no less incredible than any of the previously mentioned traits. These friendships are an integral part of our lives each and everyday, and friendships that last can certainly help lead to ones success later on in life. I have had many very close friends in my life and they all have helped me in their own way. Their strengths and abilities have immensely helped me in areas that might otherwise be weaknesses. In The Pact, three youths relied on each other’s guidance and strengths

There are over six billion people on Earth today. Each of those people has countless relationships, which extend further into an immense network of relations among thousands of individuals. These relations can be romantic, professional, unconditional, mutual, or the strongest of all, friendship. Friendship is a term used to denote co-operative and supportive behavior between two or more beings. In this sense, the term connotes a relationship which involves mutual knowledge, esteem, and affection and respect along with a degree of rendering service to friends in times of need or crisis. Friends will welcome each other's company and exhibit loyalty towards each other, often to the point of altruism.

People need companionship to help them in times of hardship. Women tend to confide more in their same sex friends rather than men who, most of the time, find competitiveness in their friendships rather than telling them things that may show signs of weakness. People who have friends of the opposite sex at this time in their life, usually share some sort of romantic bond. These types of friendships normally come from school or work, but decline after the person is married. All friendships often decline after marriage because the people involved in the relationship find the closest bonds between themselves and spend most of their time together. During marriage people find friendships with their siblings to be closer than most.

As humans, there are many aspects that separate and distinguish us from other animals. However, I believe the most valuable distinction is our ability to create meaningful relationships. Whether these relationships are friendships, marriages or any other union of two people, this connection is the basis of our humanity. Through relationships were able to share knowledge, discuss ideas, and better ourselves through the enlightenment of others.

Despite the numerous different theories consisting of different stages of friendship they all contain certain aspects of relationships going through stages of increasing familiarity. They all show how we select friends through a stage model and how relationships also break down in stages. They provide Factors that increase friendship like after helping another person we like them more due to feelings and emotions such as empathy, or a decline in a relationship by the need for too much help and support that can cause stress and anxieties. If we feel empathy we are likely to help, and there are several factors that increase chances of friendship,

Those in charge had children and would be put in stressful situations if their children were being harmed. Sapolsky was able to measure the stress of the baboons by shooting darts in the male baboons and collecting a blood sample. Sapolsky was not going to measure the stress of the female baboons as a majority of the females were either pregnant, going to be pregnant, or nursing. After studying and analyzing the social life and position in the troop, Sapolsky analyzed the impact of stress on the non-human primate’s brain. In order to measure the stress of the baboons, Sapolsky would spend the day analyzing their behavior then would blow a dart into them and collect a blood sample. By shooting them with a dart and collecting a blood sample, the blood sample was able to analyze the symptoms of stress. The complex social hierarchy became obvious as the blood sample tied back to the study of Selye. Solomon and Uriah, two powering baboons that Sapolsky was monitoring, witnessed the change in the hierarchy between the two. Sapolsky witnessed Solomon being at the very top of the hierarchy and Uriah taking his place; Solomon was at the peak for years and remained alpha longer than he probably should have (Sapolsky 2001, 95). As Solomon began to weaken due to age, Uriah showed his dominance and successfully challenged and dominated the alpha which took Solomon down to ninth place in the ranking (Sapolsky 2001, 95). As Solomon dropped down the rankings, many of the

“We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, that is a last drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindness there is at last one which makes the heart run over” (Bradbury, 71)

Throughout this essay I will be evaluating the contribution of an ethnographic approach to research on friendship. I will be looking at, and including evidence to support both sides of the argument as to whether or not this research method is in fact useful when it comes to gaining knowledge about friendship. As well as evaluating this method, I will compare it against others to reflect on the strengths, weaknesses and the typical data collected. I will look at some of the questions about friendship that have been addressed, and then whether this is the best method or if there are others that could have been more suitable.

Orangutans (Figure 3) are our first cousins since they share 97 percent of our genetic material. Contrary to other apes, orangutans are semi solitary which is unique in its social organization (3). Adult males which are the most solitary, and they associate with only their current, former, and potential consorts. For the semi-solitary orangutans, the only playmate is its mother. Even female adults are more social than male ones, rarely they groom, touch, hold hands, chase, or fight. On rare occasions, female adults may groom; however, it lasts only few seconds. Sometimes, female adults meet and travel with one another to express the close relationship. The long call by a male orangutan expresses an alert to others about his presence. Usually, other orangutans only react if the call is close by or aggressive towards them. Male orangutan can use vocalization to express that he is angry and frustrated, and that call signals a threat to another male (3). Female orangutans also produce vocalization when they get upset by the presence of another male.

Friendship means different things to different people in different cultures. Friendship is also different from other kinds of relationship such as love, family and professional. The influential power on people’s behaviour, style, ideas and life is dominant and remarkable and therefore worthwhile for scientific investigation. This essay will compare and contrast the academic research of three dominant and pioneer scientists on the development psychology discipline and especially in the field of children’s expectations and children’s understanding of

Primates have always been a fascination of author Robert Sapolsky who wrote an autobiography about a trip he took to Kenya as a research undergraduate student. Part 1 is named the adolescent years and talks about when Sapolsky first joined the baboon trip to Kenya. It introduces his research assignment, how stress affected a primates health, and the baboons he recorded his data from. Soloman was the alpha male and Leah was the alpha female. Devorah was the most eligible female in the group. Ruth, a lower-ranking baboon, who had difficulty finding a mate settled down with Joshua, another lower-ranking baboon. They soon had Obadiah. Uriah a large baboon who transferred into the group in the spring persisted a challenge against Soloman until he

Ethnographic approach to the research on friendship provided data which couldn’t be obtained using other approaches. Therefore, it extended our knowledge in this topic beyond the limits that constrain other methods of research. On the other hand, its shortcomings make its results questionable. Yet, some of these can be verified using different approaches or discover things that other approaches wouldn’t find that easily but can research them further. Concluding, the benefits of ethnographic approach overcome it shortcomings – especially when

Primate diversity can be strongly seen amongst the Bonobos and Chimpanzees; however, each primate species shares similar social traits that are common among the human species. In the various short videos on Bonobos and Chimps indicated that Chimps are violent creatures where males must assert social dominance by abusing their female counterpart. If a group of chimps were to encounter another group of chimps then there would be war amongst the two group. On the other hand, bonobos are the complete opposites of the chimp cousins. Bonobos are female dominant primate species and disputes are handled with intercourse. Intercourse for the bonobos species is also used to solidify relationships amongst both males and females. When two different groups of bonobos meet one another there are friendly interaction and the two groups would

Many similarities can be drawn between Sapolski’s A Primate’s Memoir and the documentary Look who’s talking. From the size of a community to the way the animals communicate, baboons distinguish themselves from other social species. The wolf lives in a small pack to assure its survival; the bee lives in a hive with thousands of other workers; the ant lives in a very large colony; the baboon lives in a troop. At the top of a baboon troop’s hierarchy is an alpha male. He assures his reign through

Human relationships are the foundation of human life, they strongly influence other individual’s behaviour (Bercheid et al., 2000). There are different types of relationships such as co workers, friendship, marriage which all involve a connection and therefore is an important characteristic of the formation of human relationships (Salisch 1996). The purpose of this essay is to explore research within human relationships and the relevant social psychological theories that have been linked with this conflicting topic. The theories that will be discussed throughout this essay will be the attribution theory, social learning theory, social exchange, attachment theory, evolutionary theory and the breakdown of relationships. This would initially