Friendship

The relationship which closer than just association and which is interpersonal in nature is commonly referred to as friendship. Though the degree of intimacy in the friendship and associations has got a range and differs, it can be said that both friendship and association are straddling on the same gamut. There are various fields like anthropology, zoology, sociology, philosophy and psychology which deals with the study of friendship. There are several academic theories like the equity theory, social exchange theory, and relational dialectics which concentrate on the concept of friendship.

Values of friendship

There are various values that are found in friendship that includes empathy, sympathy, the ability to the think what is best for the other person, mutual understanding, and development of trust in the other person which leads, the ability to express feelings without the fear of being judged for it. It is also the ability of a person to go for the emotional support of the other person. Positive reciprocity is one important quality which is mainly based on the give and take that is involved between the two parties.

Cicero Point of view

Friendship has been appreciated from the early days of the history. According to Cicero one should have complete truth, honesty and trust in order to acquire true friendship. It is not necessary to compromise one’s own moral when his/her is doing something wrong. Instead true friendship will explain what the friend is doing wrong and make him to understand what is right. Cicero insisted that ignorance is the key for all evil in life.

Beauty of Friendship

The idea of friendship changes from one country to the other. For example in Russia only very few people were given the status “friend”. Friends can just call each other with the first name alone and they are allowed to use diminutives. The polite way of addressing the acquaintances is by pronouncing the complete first name along with the patronymic.

In Asian countries like India it is considered that friends are the people who are equal to each other in status and other standards. Still friends respect each other, despite the shortcomings and the attributes that are between them.

Survey report about Americans

A study which was conducted in the year 2006 revealed that most Americans suffer a loss in the quantity and the quality of close friendship. This study has also revealed that about twenty five percent of the American population doesn’t have a close friend. Another sad thing is that the average confident for a single person in America has been dropped from four to two.

Questions:

• What are values found on friendship?
• How many percent of American population don’t have close friends?