Friday, April 13, 2012
Ch. 10 Concept: The Development of Friendship
The first step in the development of a friendship is the role-limited interaction. This is the initial meeting and the first stage of interaction as well as a possibly friendship. Here we rely on general scripts and stereotypes. The second stage is friendly relations. Here we find out if we have anything in common. After that we are moving toward friendship and beyond social roles. In this stage we try to hang out with someone on a more personal level. At this stage you also enjoy interacting with each other but won't invest much time into the friendship. Most relationships stay at this stage because disclosures, investments and expectations tend to be limited, also known as acquaintances. The next stage is nascent friendship. We think of each other as friends and we will share feelings and emotions with each other. Then we get to stabilized friendship. Here we assume continuity in our friendship and there is a high level of trust. And the last stage is waning friendship. This is where both people stop investing time and you start to drift apart.
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I really enjoy reading your post for the fact that you listed out the different steps in the development of a friendship. As I was reading this, I related many of my relationships and friendships alike to the different stages and for some reason, I felt a bit sad when I thought about the waning friendships that occurred in my life. Parts of me still cares about that persons’ well-being and want to reconnect but I am not sure how or where to start! Currently, majority of my relationships with friends stand at the stage of “stabilized friendship” because we both share our worries and concerns in our daily lives and we trust each other very much. These friends of mine are the ones that I have known for a long time and they have been with me through the worst times and many of the greatest. I really treasure friendships like these and reading your post certainly helped me to realize how special they are to me. Very nice work on summarizing the different steps! Keep up the good work.
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