The Mystery of Friendship

Friendship is an important part of our lives. It makes life interesting for people. Friendship is not always positive because there are other factors like negative peer influence which is also part of friendship. It is important to take all factors surrounding friendship in explain the different forms of friendship. The factors give a wide perspective of what is important to look out for during the formation of friendship and how exciting or not it is likely to be for a particular type of person. There are many ways in which friendship can be studied. The role of friendship in the society cannot be understated. The friendships sometimes grow into business partnerships which grow the economy. Friendships can also go wrong and turn into gang wars which also very common in many parts of the world. Friendship formation can be discussed from a social, cultural and psychological perspective in a bid to explain the existence and how it comes about and at the same time find out how the dynamics may change in different circumstances.

Friendship from a social perspective is a way in which people connect based on their social settings and unwritten rules of their society. In many cases people maintain friendships to ensure that they have a strong emotional support system. It is therefore inevitable for people to have friends who they connect to emotionally (Carrigan, 2014). In addition to that friends are supposed to be honest and loyal. This means that they have to ensure they look out for their friends. When forming new friendships, loyalty is always tested and only loyal friends can be kept as close friends. This process is often similar to picking out a favorite character when reading a new novel (Dill). A friends is supposed to be honest in their opinions. They should offer unbiased views on important choices one intends to make. Friends stand in a gap where the family cannot. Family is supposed to stick together at all times but sometimes, the family can have misunderstandings. At this point, the friends are the social support one is supposed to have. Some issues, friends understand better than the family. This means that in the case where the individual is away from the family, the friends can always step in and play the support system part. (Dill)

Friendship is a psychological need that leads people to find ways of getting away from their loneliness and find an avenue of easing their mental burdens by having company. Friendship takes part in the growth of people from the early stages of life to their old age. Having friends helps people get through problems and share experiences in a quest to reduce the pressures of daily lives. Maintaining mental health ensures that the individual can have a job and maintain themselves. Psychologically, friendship completes the life of the individual (Pisharody, 2016).  The types of friendships that people grow with dictate how they eventually end up being as members of the society. It is also inevitable that people select friends that fit their needs in terms of company and shared interests as well. Friendship is formed based on the psychological status of an individual. It is therefore difficult for people with depression to make friends same case to when a story is not interesting and appealing, in which case the reader loses interest. 

Culture guides the way friendships among people are formed and maintained. A well cultured person can easily select the type of friends they can keep and what they need to look for in their friends. Forming a new friendship requires a sober mind. Sometimes circumstances dictates the type of friends people have to keep. The development of a character in an individual is guided by the culture they grow in. in choosing friends again, the individual discovers details about the friend’s cultural basis gradually as they would do with a character in a novel they are reading (Schwartz, 2014). At the end of the day, they decide on whether the character is a good person just as they would a new friend. An author develops friendship for a character which the reader learns about as the story unfolds. A new friendship goes through the same process of people finding out new things about each other as they grow closer. 

Culture is important in forming the character of an individual. For instance, a person who grows in a culture that condones theft is likely to condone it as they grow and this means that they cannot be friends with people who do not tolerate thieves (Sagandykova). Culture and friendship are key factors in an individual’s life. They ensure that the individual is all rounded. An author gives the character a life that the reader can easily resonate with this is utterly similar to the journey of friendship where an individual gradually learns what they can and cannot put with about their newly found friend (Schwartz, 2014).

All the factors around friendship put together make it possible to compare a new friendship and a new novel. The development of characters as time goes by is a process that determines whether a book is good or not as well as whether the friendship is developed or not. The main difference in a novel and anew friendship is the fact that the novel characters develop in a controlled. There are many ways in which people make friends and the society, psychology and culture all paly and important role in the process. The way different people also perceive new novels also means that people make new friends differently. They perceive people differently and that is why some people can be friends with everybody while others cannot.

Studying friendship is an eye opening undertaking that makes it easier to understand the society better. When scholars study the various factors that determine how friendships are formed, managed and maintained or broken in the long run, they discover what things are likely to end a friendship. They also find out what is more likely to make people with very differing characters get along as friends (Pisharody, 2016). The psychology of friendship has given a perspective from inside the mind of an individual while sociologically, the individuals being friends are connected by their surroundings. The culture crowns the life of friendship because it has all the necessary dynamics of friendships starting from how people are socialized to take on friendships to the end result of how people actually handle friendships. The existence of friendship is solely because the human form is a social being and friendship is one way of people being social. People cannot survive on their own without friends which makes friendship a very important factor in the lives of people. Friendship is a strong pillar of the society.

References

Carrigan, M. (2014, February 12). The Sociology of Friendship. Retrieved from The Sociological Imagination: http://sociologicalimagination.org/archives/14889

Dill, K. (n.d.). A Friend: sociologist’s [Perspective. Retrieved from Where Friendships Begin: www.socialjane.com/articles/3-fetaured-article/94-what-is-a-friend-a-sociologists-perspective

Pisharody, A. V. (2016, July 3). What is the psychology behind friendship? Retrieved from Quora: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-psychology-behind-friendship

Sagandykova, A. (n.d.). Importance of Friendships in Different Cultures. Retrieved from Top Universities: www.topuniversities.com/blog/importance-friendship-different-cultures

Scholar, T. (1998, June). How to Create a Character Profile. Retrieved from Writers Write: www.writerswrite.com/journal/june98/how-to-create-a-character-profile

Schwartz, P. (2014, December 31). Early Friendships Profoundly Affects Child’s Development. Retrieved from Hudson Valley Parent: hvparent.com/early-friendships-profoundly-affects-childs-development