Introduction
Humans are social creatures that depend on interaction with other members of their kind to maintain a comfortable existence. However, such interaction is not limited to short-term contacts, so the need, as mentioned above, causes the emergence of various long-term relationships, including friendship. The Bible says, “Friends always show their love. What are brothers for if not to share troubles?”
The data is relevant and credible since psychologists and sociologists have studied friendly relationships between individuals for millennia and continue to do so today. It is impossible to underestimate the value of friendship in human existence since the definition of this concept, the diversity of its forms and life cycles, indicates its essential role in everyone’s life.
The Notion of Friendship
Friendships are voluntarily formed social bonds involving two individuals who positively impact each other. Due to each other’s consensual essence, the accessibility of many other mates, and the notion that people seem to have very little interpersonal and organizational assistance from other connections, friendships are frequently referred to as more susceptible interactions than other types. Hectic job schedules, family commitments, or personal concerns like money issues, family strife, or relationship issues may hamper a person’s capacity to foster friendships.
Data indicates that individuals possess three basic assumptions regarding social connections. A mate is someone you can confide in, count on for assistance and psychological assistance, join in events with, and share the enjoyment of (Rawlins, 1992). The accessibility of individuals in a given circumstance can either help or hinder the development of friendships. The sort of friendship relies on the viewpoints the human perceives, and humans are more driven to connect if they think they can interact with the other person in the future.
Typification of Friendly Relationships
The approach to friendly relations typification relies on the researcher’s academic background. Three types of friendships – for pleasure, for benefit, and virtue – are distinguished in philosophical studies. Scholars divide friend relationships into four categories: acquaintances, companions, close friends, and best pals (Lee, 2022). Companies develop and strengthen throughout age as genuine regard and mutual recognition rise. To combat the detrimental long-term effects of racial hatred, intolerance, and racial bias that start in the early stages and last into maturity, it is essential to promote cross-group solid connections in children (Killen et al., 2022).
Friendships are more likely to form with people we find physically beautiful, socially adept, and attentive to our needs (Fehr, 2000). Friendships also frequently develop between individuals with identical racial and sexual identities, maturity levels, social demographics, and comparable hobbies and beliefs. Social competence in sympathy, emotional control, dispute resolution, self-disclosure, and responsiveness also increase the chance of successful growth of friendship with any person in your life.
Friendship Lifespan
Like other connections, friendships contain a lifespan of development, management, and degradation or disintegration. Although there are phases in establishing relations, they cannot always be perceived chronologically since friends might experience the phases of creation, retention, and deterioration dissolution repeatedly and simultaneously or independently. The degree of intimacy that develops in each connection is different, and it may change over the life of a friendship, which adds to the diversity of relationships.
Contextual, societal, personal, and interpersonal elements, as well as interpersonal interactions, all impact the development of friendships (Fehr, 2000). However, human connections do not necessarily develop in a logical order since acquaintances can develop into the closest friends, and friends can become acquaintances. Thus, it is crucial to work to enhance all forms of friendship at every stage of their growth.
Conclusions
Regardless of the specific stage of development of your relationship with each of your friends, you would not be the person you are today without such relationships. This is precisely the value of friendship and all its types – they change our lives and us for the better. In friendship, as in every aspect of our lives, we get precisely as we merit and deserve as much as we put in the effort. Therefore, do not wait for a call from a friend; call yourself, or, what is better, gather all your friends and personally realize the value of this phenomenon for yourself.
References
Fehr, B. (2000). The Life Cycle of Friendship. In Clyde Hendrick and Susan S. Hendrick (Eds.), Close relationships: A sourcebook (pp. 71–74). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Web.
Killen, M., Luken Raz, K., & Graham, S. (2022). Reducing prejudice through promoting cross-group friendships. Review of General Psychology, 26(3), 361-376. Web.
Lee, K. (2022). Multiple types of friends and life stage differences in friendship. Social Networks, 71, 32-48. Web.
Rawlins, W. K. (1992). Friendship matters: Communication, dialectics, and the life course. Aldine De Gruyter.