Friendship quality in connection to time spent with romantic partner Humans are naturally a social species (Furman, 1999). People engage in different types of relationships throughout their entire lives. Certain relationships are lifelong, others maybe just a day or even a few seconds. Among those longer lasting relationships, are friendships and romantic relationships. Nearly all people can relate to both at some point in life, however, do the two ever intermix? Based upon personal experience, I have found it can be problematic to balance both types of relationships. Friends of mine have dedicated much time to their significant others and neglected the friendships they had first established. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to provide …show more content…
As part of the study, the boys were asked to rate the quality of their friendships. In support of positive friendships, it was found that the boys who were in the resilience category had higher friendship ratings than those that were not able to overcome hardships. Leading one to believe the support given by the excellent friends helped the kids overcome the adversity. Girls also prove friendship to be supportive through life. Researchers found that although girls and boys tend to approach offering support in different ways, having a support system through friends develops an emotional closeness (Rose, Smith, Glick, & Schwartz-Mette, 2016). Furthermore, friendships have also been noted to make an impact on what college students contribute their success to (Killoren, Streit, Alfaro, Delgado, & Johnson, 2016). Additional benefits to friendships have been distinguished through research as well. Throughout a lifetime, friendships adapt and change based upon developmental phases and transitions (Hartup & Stevens, 1997). In this way, friendships are flexible and essentially ever-changing. An advantage to having enduring friendships is ensuring a sense of an overall well being in addition to what has already been stated. Moreover, aside from friendship contributing to psychological and mental health, friendship also provides advantages to physical health. Friendships provide social support that reduces stress levels
Friendship is an important asset in the world we live in, the young needs friendship to retain them from error, older people need it to care for them and those in their prime time need it, to do fine actions. No one would choose to live without friends because friendship is very important and it holds cities together.
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.
Friendship is one of the most valuable components in life. Friendship has the ability to change lives in a positive way. Friendship changes people’s views on life to a more positive outlook. “True friendship is when someone knows you better than yourself and takes a position in your best interests in a crisis. Friendship goes beyond sharing time together, and it is long lasting.” (Friends.com). As we spend a lot of time with our friends, friendship opens our minds to different ways of viewing the world. Unfortunately, sometimes strong barriers may be placed by those who see two people’s friendship as a threat; since people are influenced by their friends, friendship could make people question what
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,
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.
Everyone, quite simply, needs to have friends. In her article “Fifteen Reasons We Need Friends,” Dr. Susan Krauss Whitbourne says that one should appreciate their friends, for they can offer vital life skills, define properties, and can help you get more friends. Moreover, during moments of crisis or accomplishment, it is always good to have a friend there to provide comfort and solace, encouragement and support. Although there are many different types of characters and personalities out there, there is essentially three types of friends: friends who are temporary, friends who are there for a reason, and friends who are there for a lifetime.
Whether past or present, our friends have shaped us to who we are today. We are even the product of the friends who are no longer our friends. Also, our friends can give us vital life skills. There are many perks of having friends for example, they sharpen our mind, friends make us generally happier, they help us knowing ourselves better, they support us in advancing our career, friends help us meet romantic partners and they make us living a longer and healthier life. Another important aspect is that childhood friendships start our learning process. Early friendships play a vital role because they occur while key developmental changes are taking place. They help teach us some of those important life skills but also shape our life “narrative.” Teen friendships help us shape later romantic bonds. Though parents spend much of their time worrying about who their teenage kids are with, these relationships are a training ground for the later long-term bonds that will evolve through adulthood. It is important to know that people are less lonely when they have friends. Loneliness is painful, especially when
During the middle adulthood relationships start to become the most important key to over-all wellbeing and that large social networks and friend groups will begin to decrease in size but increase in the quality. At the late adulthood stages friendships become highly important because this is also the time of life that that friends start to pass away, this is also the stage in life that adults have the most satisfaction (Bee, 2015). During the early parts of my 20’s friendships were the most important aspect in my social life, while the biggest difference now that I am in my 30’s that I care more about the quality of friends over the
Friendship is an entity that has been in our history since the beginning of time. This seemingly unbreakable bond has been ingrained in us since before we were able to speak and really understand the value of friendship. Television has even promoted this relationship throughout the years with shows such as Sesame Street featuring Bert and Ernie, the 90’s mega hit simply entitled Friends all the way to the wildly popular cartoon Spongebob and his faithful best friend and sidekick Patrick. Friendships can carry strong or limited emotions so there may be highs and lows, but at the end of the day friendships have been proven to be beneficial for individuals, groups and society as a whole.
This story takes a wide variety of the many stereotypical friends that people meet throughout their lifetime, and gives multiple examples on why we need each of them. The author, Marion Winik, highlights the importance of each different friend with their unique characteristics, and what classifies them as that specific friend. For example, there are “Buddies” who help in many scenarios both big and small; “Relative Friends” are family members that someone finds common grounds with; “Work Friends” are people that get along solely for the fact that they work together; “Faraway Friends” is a person that someone grew up with, but they moved away; “Former Friend” are friends no longer associated with each other; “Friends You Love to Hate” are obnoxiously
A friend should be one’s biggest supporter, biggest cheerleader, and biggest fan. Jane Collingwood, author of article The Importance of Friendship, shares the work of author Tom Rath. In Rath’s book, Vital Friends: The People You Can’t Afford To Live Without, he explains the psychology and his mass study of friendship. Collingwood summarizes some of his intriguing findings: “If your best friend eats healthily, you are five times more likely to have a healthy diet yourself. Married people say friendship is more than five times as important as physical intimacy within marriage. Those who say they have no real friends at work have only a one in 12 chance of feeling engaged in their
Friendship is an integral part of the life of any human being. Most people feel the need to have a person who they can communicate with and talk about their challenges at any given time. Friendship is essential in
In order for humanity to exist, people need to interact with others. Though it is not a requirement for one to like his partner, one’s life is easier, finds purpose, and is filled with joy when spent with a true friend. This is not always apparent for it has been said, “the more the merrier” and in this current society, many have accepted this phrase in regards to their friendships. Social media has been used a tool to keep in touch with the multitude of friends one may have but, an excess of friends does not necessarily mean one has true friends. The renowned ancient philosopher, Aristotle, wrote about friendship in books eight and nine in his Nicomachean Ethics.
“A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be.” - Winnie the Pooh. Friendship is one of the things that helps build you as a person. It shapes who you are, and potentially who you will be. Having friends can be crucial to both your mental health and your physical health, and it’s important to know how to maintain friendships and some of the key factors in doing so. “According to a research study of 1500 participants over 10 years conducted by Flinders University, they concluded that people with a large network of friends outlived those with little or no network of friends by 22%”₁. Although friendship is loosely defined as “the state of being friends”, it is better termed in layers. The term ‘friendship’ is not only the state of being friends, but involves multiple complex qualities. Throughout this essay, I hope to explain three of the essential qualities (or “layers”) of maintaining friendships, including trust, respect, and kindness/understanding and why they are so important.
Luckily, my childhood marked my life in a positive way for the most part. As I got older, I became a social person and even though I don’t have many friends, I enjoyed the few I have because we share the same virtue and authenticity in life. As an adult, I have realized that I rather keep few good friends, instead of having many, but not the support system I need in my life.