What are the important elements in your life? Family? Love, Career, Health and Friendship? Yes friendship is important for many of us. Friends share laughter, friends help us on rough time. Karen Karbo at Psychology Today has a great article on friendship:
When people are asked, “What gives meaning to your life?” friendship figures at the top of the list. Yet the dynamics of friendship have remained mysterious and unquantifiable. Like romantic love, friendships were thought to “just happen.” New research shows that the dance of friendship is nuanced—far more complex than commonly thought. With intriguing accuracy, sociologists and psychologists have delineated the forces that attract and bind friends to each other, beginning with the transition from acquaintanceship to friendship. They’ve traced the patterns of intimacy that emerge between friends and deduced the once ineffable “something” that elevates a friend to the vaunted status of “best.” These interactions are minute but profound; they are the dark matter of friendship.
She tries to look into what actually compose friendship. In summary, there are couple of good points:
- Reciprocity is important for friendship
- Intimacy and social-identity support form the friendship.
- Requires work to remain friend with others. Must show up and interact with your friends.
Think about for a second – how you treasure your friendship. Yes, you need to spend effort for it.
Friendship: The Laws of Attraction – [Psychology Today]
