Friendship: How to Make and Keep Friends Essay

Traditionally, young men and women preferred friends of their own sex and engaged in sex-specific activities with them. Male friendships centered on shared activities such as sports, cars, and contests (sometimes fighting with words, not weapons). Women’s friendships were more intimate and emotional, involving self-disclosing talk about health, romances, and relatives (p.437)

When it comes to investigating friendship, one question that has been raised is ‘what is the role of friendship in the life of a 13 year old?’’. Several sources of data include ethnographic notes taken whilst spending time with a group of friends during school lunch breaks and diary/blog entries etc. Firstly, in this case the researcher would need to carefully consider the strengths and weaknesses of each type of data, for example, when looking at a blog the information/data available is likely to be information that the author wants to share with a wider audience whereas a diary entry is more private. In this case, both documents

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 friendship. It will

Vered Amit – Talai indulges her readers with a commonly accepted phenomenon of Western civilization in which adolescents rarely transition into adulthood with their childhood friends through the experiences of a group of high school students in The Waltz of Sociability: Intimacy, Dislocation, and Friendship in a Quebec High School. It is assumed that peer relationships developed during adolescence are of considerable importance but only temporary. The social and cultural ramifications of this assumption are a recurring

Often times women’s studies are overshadowed by topics pertaining to other matters. Because of this, Steve Duck of University of Iowa calls women’s studies “understudied relationships”. In his book, Under-Studied Relationships: Off the Beaten Track, Steve delves into the complicated world that is friendship between women. He reveals that even the best of friendships, more often than not, will dissolve due to geographical distance, especially during the transition from high school to college. However, Duck claims that this occurrence is more detrimental to male friendships than female friendships. According to Duck, “…men’s inability to maintain distal friends may be due to a lack of awareness about and skills to utilize effective strategies that maintain a [friendship]” (184). This argument implies that men simply do not put as much emotional value into friendships as women do. While distance may seem challenging for women to overcome, they put more effort into preserving their friendship. Duck further instills this concept by explaining that “women’s same-sex friendships tend to be based more on intimate and emotional discussions than men’s…” (186). Men, Duck argues, lack the depth in their friendships that women possess and for this reason have difficulty sustaining a friendship that is met with the strain of distance.

Alex needs to be involved with his friends for his emotional well-being. Alex is facing struggles with peers inside his school and with Mr. William’s. According to the text, “social relationships are necessary for the child to gain experience in learning about others’ points of view (Piaget, 1932/1965). They contribute to the child’s sense of security and connectedness (Berndt, 1982), and foster the development of the self-concept (Mead, 1934). These three benefits are not as separate as they may seem but are, instead, three highly interconnected outcomes of positive social contact. (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015, pg

Critical thinking note: Davis, K. (2012). Friendship 2.0: Adolescents’ experiences of belonging and self-disclosure online. Journal of Adolescence, 35(6), 1527–1536.

Differences in childhoods can impact individual’s communication with each other in relationships. At a young age, children tend to play with other children that seem to be of the same gender as them. Both groups of genders have different ways of building a friendship. Tannen says that, “Little girls create and maintain friendships by exchanging secrets” (276). It is important to girls to share secretive things to get closer to one another and to get a mutual understanding. Unlike boys whose bonds are, “based less on talking, more on doing things together” (Tannen 276). Boys do not talk a lot unless the need to prove something. While girls are comfortable about talking about their feelings, boys feel uncomfortable because it is not something they discuss much.

Peer relationships are some of the most important interactions we have in our childhood. According to lecture (5/7/2015), these relationships help to build our social skills as well our social competence, creating a social acceptance amongst our peers. Our textbook (pg. 321) explains that peer relationships promote both physical and cognitive development. Once the child enters the preschool age they begin to differentiate friends from peers. A peer is simply an acquaintance, the child plays with them due to accessibility and similar background or social standing; however, a friend is someone with shared interests and associated with positive experiences. During this study into peer relationships in early and middle childhood, I interviewed two young girls. Kayla is 11 years old and Adison is 4 years old. While some of their views on friendship and peer interactions are similar, most of their views are worlds apart.

The main character, Olive Hoover, is continuously expanding her competencies. However, one area that I would hope to help her with is the formation of friendhips with peers her own age. She is surrounded by adults who may display childlike behavior at times, but during middle childhood, friendships play a key role in advancement and provide additional support. Olive does not seem to acquire the capacity to make friends easily, preventing a solid social competence where she builds positive relationships and maintains them. Newman (2013) suggests that she may not have had a secure experience in infancy due to her lack of social competence (Kindle Location 291). Also, “marital discord, large family size, … put children at risk of disturbance of socialization” (Sandler, 1989, 381). Marital aggression may affect a child’s social learning process, whereas, children begin to model ineffective conflict resolution, internalizing disorders and withdraw. Olive’s parents are inconsistent in their parental models and could impede her ability to feel secure, causing future implications of anxiety and or depression (Eiden et al., 2009). According to Piaget, Olive is in the heteronomous morality stage where she follows the rules and sees them as unchangeable and fixed. She demonstrates subordination to authority figures, her family members, as her judgements

This article seeks to empirically measure the degree to which peer groups, specifically friendship groups, exert a normative influence on some aspects of gender identity in adolescents. This theory had not been tested empirically, although the authors cite previous studies to this effect on gender-typical behaviours of younger children and on the significant impact of peers on other areas of adolescent social development. In order to measure adolescents’ evolving understanding of gender identity, the researchers employed longitudinal social network analysis after surveying a diverse body of students. Furthermore, this particular method was utilised to discern whether adolescents tend to emulate the norms of their peers or whether friends are

The article, “Girl Friendship Drama: When it’s Time to Stop Perseverating, and Let it Go.” by Rachel Simmons presents very credible information about girls’ friendship. The great message presented here is masked aggressiveness and selfishness in girls which is mostly shown once they are angered by their friends. I agree with Simmons that girls should be taught a lot of things especially on how to handle their attitudes towards their colleagues. Despite the fact that girls have problems dealing with friendships, a lot of pressure is put by the community, parents and peers that make these girls unable to comply with or match their personal interests and those that they are demanded to meet. Most of the pressure on the girls demand

By connecting with other girls who are experiencing similar thoughts and feeling, it provides a place to learn to express emotions and not emotionally isolate. It can be expected that towards the beginning of the group, members thoughts and feeling will be pessimistic and focused on external things they cannot control. As the group continues the language will shift to things that are in their control and will be strengths-based, instead of focusing on their weaknesses. As their thoughts change, their self-concept improves and they begin to relate to other in healthier ways (Zinck, & Littrell, 2000). Group work is especially effective with adolescents because at this stage they value their peers and learn more effectively from one another, than from adults (Skudrzyk, Zera, McMahon, Schmidt, Boyne, & Spannaus, 2009). Group work has been found to also be more effective in areas of self-awareness and social skills Skudryzk, et al., 2009). These things are the key components to decreasing feelings of depression, anxiety, and risk-taking behaviors (Smith-Adcock, et al., 2008). For all these reason, a psychoeducational group is very effective for the chosen

al., (2005), found that children who had a high-quality best friendship, were less likely to become and participate in bullying behaviors than those children who have a lower-quality best friendship. Per Bollmer et. al., (2005), having a high-quality friendship can protect some children from bullying because it gives the child an example of what a healthy relationship is and should look like. Malcolm et. al., (2006), found that as the quality of equal friendships increased both overt and relational bullying decreased. In addition, Malcolm et. al., (2006), found that the quality of the friendships is a predictor of lower levels of bullying. However, the quality of the friendship did not determine what the quality of the relationship would be overtime. Sainio, Veenstra, Huitsing, & Salmivalli, (2011), state that friendship could protect adolescents from bullying because friendships increase the adolescent’s psychosocial adjustment and therefore, decrease their

A friend is someone difficult to find. A friend is someone you can always count on when times are tough. The dictionary's definition of a good friend is a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard. A good friend is there when you are struggling. For example, when a boy breaks your heart a good friend walks you through it and offers a shoulder to cry on. According to Bree Neff, a good friend is someone who is trustworthy, doesn't talk behind your back, listens to your problems, gives good advice and tries to lend humor along with his or her support. There are also bad friends, those who pretend to care and then turn around gossiping and starting drama. Good and bad friends are all around you, involved in