importance of trust in friendship essay

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Why Is Trust Important in a Friendship: Persuasive Essay

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Trust In Friendship (Essay Sample)

Friendship is a bond of mutual fondness between two people. It is a solid form of interpersonal affiliation than an alliance. Friendship has been investigated in academic sphere such as sociology, communication, philosophy, anthropology, and social psychology. Many academic speculations of friendship have been suggested, including equity theory, relational debate, attachment styles, and communal exchange theory. A database study discovered that people who have close friends are happier. Trust refers to having confidence in another person, one thinks the person is reliable, and one feels safe with the person emotionally and physically. When people are in a relationship, both can build trust together when both decide to trust each other. This essay seeks to describe friendship and why one should trust in friendship.

There are many kinds of friendships some of which differ from place to place. Definite characteristics exist in many types of friendships. These characteristics include: virtue, love, empathy, honesty, kindness, altruism, mutual understanding, compassion, trust, and appreciation of each other’s friendship, to convey one’s feelings, and make faults without the anxiety of being judged by friends. Friends mind to share common occupations, interests, backgrounds, comparable demographics, and there is no sensible limit on what class of people can form a friendship. Friendships may close at one point or another depending on different reasons. Sometimes friends may shift away from each other and the relationship diminishes because of the distance however the digital technology has made the geographic reach less of a barrier.

The main purpose of having a friend is to have the feeling of safety whereby one can express thoughts and feelings with one another. One should trust in friendship because friends show what you are. Friends can help one to deduce one’s goals and visions and also encourage each other to remain focus and chase after one’s dreams. Friends offer a shoulder to lean. In times of adversity, people turn to friends for support. Close friends can help one to manage tribulations of life events such as sickness, divorce and death of a close person. A friend helps one to keep in line. Close friends have no issue telling the truth because one knows that you trust them and you are going to take one’s words very urgently.

One should trust in friendship because, with a friend one can be oneself. When a person has a friend, the person has no need to be shy or conceal one’s feelings. This helps one to be confident and comfortable when that friend is around. Friendship helps one to be gross with friends depending on how gross one wants. One can eat burger with oil dripping down one’s mouth and licking fingers because one is not shy since friends cannot see one any different. Close friends finish a sentence when one speaks. Since close friends spend more time with each other, one will easily realize the line of thinking and thought of another. Friends will be honest and will tell one how it really is. When one steps out of the line, one will speak one’s mind without being afraid to caution the other and this is what close friends do to each other.

In conclusion, friendship is a bond of mutual fondness between two people and is a solid form of interpersonal affiliation than an alliance. Trust is having confidence in another person, one thinks the person is reliable, and one feels safe with the person emotionally and physically. When people are in a relationship, both can build trust together when both decide to trust each other. The main purpose of having a friend is to have the feeling of safety whereby one can express thoughts and feelings with one another.

Writing Essay on Friendship: 3 Samples to Get Inspired

When in school or college, you won’t escape the task of writing an essay on friendship. It’s a paper revealing the power of having friends and reflecting on the corresponding values.

It seems easy to write. You craft a narrative about your mates, explaining what they mean to you. And yet, it’s an academic paper. So, some rules are still here on how to structure and format it.

In this article, you’ll find three samples of different essays on friendship. Feel free to use them to get inspired and better understand this paper’s nature and purpose.

Let’s answer all the questions related to friendship essays together!

What Is an Essay on Friendship?

First, the definition:

An essay on friendship is a short academic paper students write to express their thoughts and reflections on the topic.

The purpose is to:

explore the phenomenon;
understand what it means to you;
realize the significance of having close people nearby;
reveal the pros and cons of committing to a friendship;
reflect on how friendship can help our wellness.

Friendship essays aren’t about “my friends and I” topics only. You can write about the role of friendship for mental health, craft an expository essay explaining the topic, or build a reflective essay on what friendship means to you.

Friendship Essay Structure

Friendship essays have a standard structure of academic papers. They are short and consist of three parts:

Introduction about friendship
Paragraph about friendship
Friendship essay conclusion

In the intro, you start with an attention grabber. Feel free to use a quote, a surprising fact, or an anecdote. Introduce the topic and finish with thesis statements about friendship.

In a friendship paragraph, you support a thesis with facts, evidence, personal stories, etc. As a rule, essay bodies have three paragraphs minimum. So you can devote each paragraph to one aspect :

Definition of this concept
Why having friends is essential
What a friend can give you
Types of friendship
Challenges mates meet on their way
Characteristics of a good friend
How to strengthen a friendship, etc.

In the essay body, you can use stories and examples from your life to illustrate points. Tell about your friends and share personal thoughts — it will make your paper more compelling to read.

In the concluding paragraph, sum up the points and restate your thesis. Finish on a positive note, leaving readers with the food for thought.

Easier said than done, huh?

Below are three samples of friendship essays for you to see what they look like and how they sound.

3 Samples to Help You Write an Essay About Friendship

While Ralph Waldo Emerson friendship essay (1) is the top example of the paper on this topic, we’ll go further and provide several NEW samples.

Please check:

Short Essay on Friendship

This sample is perfect for high school students. As a rule, teachers ask them to write 150-200-word essays. The task is to describe concepts or things the way they understand them.

Narrative Essay on Friendship

Narrative essays are more about personal stories. Here, you can tell about your friends, include dialogues , and sound less academic.

500 Words Essay Sample on Importance of Friendship

Over to You

Now, you have three samples and know how to structure this paper. Ready to write yours?

Let’s begin with the “Why is friendship important?” essay — and you’ll see that it’s not super challenging to craft. Be honest, share your thoughts, and don’t hesitate to write personal reflections on the topic.

Still don’t know how to start your essay on friendship? Our writers are here to help.

References:

https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/essays/friendship.html
Essay samples
Essay writing
Writing tips

Essay on Friendship for Students and Children

500+ words essay on friendship.

Friendship is one of the greatest bonds anyone can ever wish for. Lucky are those who have friends they can trust. Friendship is a devoted relationship between two individuals. They both feel immense care and love for each other. Usually, a friendship is shared by two people who have similar interests and feelings.

You meet many along the way of life but only some stay with you forever. Those are your real friends who stay by your side through thick and thin. Friendship is the most beautiful gift you can present to anyone. It is one which stays with a person forever.

True Friendship

A person is acquainted with many persons in their life. However, the closest ones become our friends. You may have a large friend circle in school or college , but you know you can only count on one or two people with whom you share true friendship.

There are essentially two types of friends, one is good friends the other are true friends or best friends. They’re the ones with whom we have a special bond of love and affection. In other words, having a true friend makes our lives easier and full of happiness.

Most importantly, true friendship stands for a relationship free of any judgments. In a true friendship, a person can be themselves completely without the fear of being judged. It makes you feel loved and accepted. This kind of freedom is what every human strives to have in their lives.

In short, true friendship is what gives us reason to stay strong in life. Having a loving family and all is okay but you also need true friendship to be completely happy. Some people don’t even have families but they have friends who’re like their family only. Thus, we see having true friends means a lot to everyone.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Importance of Friendship

Friendship is important in life because it teaches us a great deal about life. We learn so many lessons from friendship which we won’t find anywhere else. You learn to love someone other than your family. You know how to be yourself in front of friends.

Friendship never leaves us in bad times. You learn how to understand people and trust others. Your real friends will always motivate you and cheer for you. They will take you on the right path and save you from any evil.

Similarly, friendship also teaches you a lot about loyalty. It helps us to become loyal and get loyalty in return. There is no greater feeling in the world than having a friend who is loyal to you.

Moreover, friendship makes us stronger. It tests us and helps us grow. For instance, we see how we fight with our friends yet come back together after setting aside our differences. This is what makes us strong and teaches us patience.

Therefore, there is no doubt that best friends help us in our difficulties and bad times of life. They always try to save us in our dangers as well as offer timely advice. True friends are like the best assets of our life because they share our sorrow, sooth our pain and make us feel happy.

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The Importance of Friendship

Friendships are a crucial part of living a fulfilling life..

Posted July 26, 2021 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

Friendship makes life more enjoyable and enriches one's everyday experiences.
Finding friends can be challenging but can be often achieved by approaching others with mutual interests.
The first criteria one should look for in a partner is someone who is ultimately a good friend to them.

As we move through life, we find that there are many things out of our control. We can’t choose our parents, our genetics , or control the things that happen in the world around us. One thing that we can control is who our friends are, and this decision can either make our lives so much richer and beautiful, or more stressful and disappointing. Today we’ll focus on how to choose friends who enrich our lives and make them more beautiful.

Why friends are so important

Having solid friendships is important for two main reasons. First, they make life more enjoyable. We get to share the beautiful aspects of life with people who we love, which can enrich our everyday experiences. Second, our friends help us through the difficult times. Having friends to support us through hard times can make unimaginably difficult situations seem more tolerable.

The most beautiful part about pouring our time and energy into friendships is that not only do friends help enrich our lives, but we enrich theirs too! Friendships get us through the tough times in life, make things more fun and enjoyable, and all-around make our lives better. I urge you to take stock of your friendships and ask yourself if your current friends people build you up and support you, or is the friendship more one-sided?

As we explore friendships today, these are also inclusive of our partners. I believe that the foundation for any healthy relationship is friendship. So it’s important to group our romantic partners into this conversation too.

So, where do we find friends? This might sound silly, but finding friends can be challenging! When I first moved to California for my Ph.D., I didn’t have any friends out here. There were quite a few people in my program that I enjoyed spending time with. But, towards the end of school, they became very busy and were no longer able to dedicate time to hang out anymore. Thankfully, through the help of a very good therapist, I learned that it was important to enjoy life instead of striving for excellence all of the time. As a result, I learned how important it was to carve out time in my life for friends.

Unfortunately, the people I had dedicated time to thus far were achievement-oriented and were pouring their time into work and not our friendships. This forced me to seek out other ways to form connections with people. I ended up finding a local hiking group with the hopes of meeting people with similar interests. During one of these hikes, I met Jim, one of my best friends to this day.

We became instant friends. We have continued to support each other over the years, and even more importantly, we always make time for one another. We both view the friendship as one that makes each other’s lives better, therefore it’s always worth the time and energy. The backbone of any successful friendship is one where both sides put in equal effort and support.

Both Jim and I were forced to put in more effort when he moved across the country to the East Coast. Because we already had such a strong foundation, this didn’t impact our friendship. We talk all of the time and see each other several times a year. We make the relationship a priority no matter what coast each other is on. Like anything in life that is valuable to us, we must work at it and put time and effort into it.

When it's time to move on from a friendship

The second part of the friendship discussion can be a difficult one — reassessing your current friendships and potentially moving on from friends who don’t add value to your life.

Two of my best friends from high school went down different paths from me. We still keep in contact, but I don’t spend too much time with them anymore. The supporting, loving part of our relationship wasn’t there anymore, so it was no longer worth putting energy into maintaining a friendship that had changed so much.

This may be a story you can relate to. What I hope you take away from this post is this — friendships take energy, time, and commitment. And if you’re putting your time and energy into someone who isn’t enriching your life and giving you the support you need, it may be time to reevaluate that friendship.

If you find yourself in the market for friends (who isn’t?) I recommend you find groups or activities that you genuinely enjoy. This way you’ll have the opportunity to connect with people who have similar interests. And once you’re there, take a risk! Talk to people, exchange contact information, and follow up with them. It may feel scary at first, but the reward outweighs the momentary uncomfortable feeling you may have.

Friendship and dating

In many ways, the most important friendship in our lives is the one we have with our romantic partners. The first criteria we should look for in this partner is someone who is ultimately a good friend to us, meaning that they are kind, positive, loving, and supportive. If we’re dating someone and they’re a jerk, it’s probably safe to assume that they’re not a good friend. To avoid this, I recommend seeking out someone who is a good friend first, i.e. before the romance and sexual stuff gets in the way.

When there are bumps in a friendship or a romantic relationship , it’s important to work through those tough times. The tricky part is that it will take two people to fix that issue. We can only control our actions and hold ourselves accountable, but we cannot control our friend or our partner's reaction. In addition to our own actions, we have control over the friends or partners that we choose in the first place. If we prioritize choosing good people who we can trust will work through issues with us, then we can work through anything.

Friendships are a crucial part of living a fulfilling life. It’s so important that we surround ourselves with people who we have fun with, who support us, and people who make us better. You may already have beautiful friendships in your life, but if you’re still in the market for friends, it’s never too late to cultivate new relationships that will make your life even more magnificent.

Robert Puff, Ph.D. , is host and producer of the Happiness Podcast, with over 19 million downloads.

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Importance of Friendship Essay Example, with Outline

Published by gudwriter on May 10, 2018 May 10, 2018

Ready for importance of friendship essay? Take a look at this informational resource featuring an outline, APA style format, and a list of references. Use ideas from this essay sample to form the focus of your writing assignment. To achieve high grades order admission essays from experienced tutors who will help you with your essay.

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Importance of Friendship Essay Outline

Introduction.

Thesis: Friendship brings people together in a bond that helps them realize and experience a meaningful life.

Paragraph 1:

A good friend is always available irrespective of the circumstances.

A true friend cares for their friends, accepts them unconditionally, tolerates their shortcomings, and encourages them even in the face of hopelessness.
A loyal friend makes one to be who they are without fearing victimization or judgment.
A good friend can know one more than one knows themselves.
A friend can tell one without fear what one does not want to tell oneself.

Paragraph 2:

Friendship is like a partnership since it brings two people together on equal terms that are binding to both of them.

Friends give their all and love each other unconditionally and do even more so as to sustain it.
The ugly, the bad, and the good should be endured in friendship.
A good friend brings out the best in someone.
A person in friendship expects their initiatives to be attended to even when they are down with illness.

Paragraph 3:

Friendship can be compared to family and can even do more than a family could do for a person.

Sometimes, the friends one has are the family they wish they had or the family they find easier to deal with as compared to their blood family.
One’s blood family may ignore, ridicule, judge, or even misunderstand them.
One may get from their friends that which they do not get from their family.
A true family is not linked by the bond of blood but the bond of joy and respect in each other’s life.

Paragraph 4:

“A friend in need is a friend in deed” is an old cliché that speaks about true friendship.

It essentially means that a true friend will always help in times of need.
I fully understood the meaning of this saying when a classmate friend of mine once handed in my takeaway assignment in my absence.

Friendship brings people together to form a greater and stronger whole than its individual parts. Friends act and react in ways that show that they love and care for each other.

Importance of Friendship Essay Example

Almost every human being has friends or at least a friend with whom they spend time together. Friendship is about knowing someone better than others do and counting on them whenever the need arises. A friend is like a gift that one gives oneself. It is doubtless that out of friendship, one lives the fullness of life. Some of the qualities that are expected from friendship include trust, honesty, and authenticity. These are qualities that are majorly concerned with remaining true to a friend and providing them a shoulder to lean on all the time. Friendship brings people together in a bond that helps them realize and experience a meaningful life. Gudwriter offers two paragraph essay examples from any topic.

A good friend is always available irrespective of the circumstances. A true friend cares for their friends, accepts them unconditionally, tolerates their shortcomings, and encourages them even in the face of hopelessness. Even at that moment when everyone decides to walk away from a person for whatever reason(s), their true friend would walk in and be with them and support them. With a loyal friend, one can be who they are without fearing victimization or judgment because they know the friend fully understands them. A good friend can as a matter of fact know one more than one knows themselves. In addition, a friend can tell one without fear what one does not want to tell oneself. If one is on a wrong path, the friend would tell them as soon as they notice it.

Additionally, friendship is like a partnership since it brings two people together on equal terms that are binding to both of them. They give their all and love each other unconditionally and do even more so as to sustain it. In a friendship, there should be expected to be the ugly, the bad, and the good, all of which should be endured. A good friend brings out the best in someone by encouraging them and prevailing upon them to make the best out of their abilities and strengths. Just like in a business partnership, a person in friendship would expect their initiatives to be attended to even when they are down with illness. This is why it could be true to say that life is partly what one makes it and partly what the friends they choose make it.

Friendship can also be compared to family and can even do more than a family could do for a person. Sometimes, the friends one has are the family they wish they had or the family they find easier to deal with as compared to their blood family. One’s blood family may ignore, ridicule, judge, or even misunderstand them. In such a case, they would get from their friends that which they do not get from their family. However, in the best case scenario, friendship can also develop between or among family members. Normally, a true family is not linked by the bond of blood but the bond of joy and respect in each other’s life. One should consider a good friend of theirs as their greatest relation because just one loyal friend is more than a thousand relatives.

“ A friend in need is a friend in deed ” is an old cliché that speaks about true friendship. It essentially means that a true friend will always help in times of need. I never really gave much weight to this saying until I once had to rely on a friend and classmate for an important favor. I had missed school due to an unavoidable circumstance on a day everyone in the class was to hand in their final takeaway assignment in print format. I tried calling people I had thought were my friends among my classmates but none was willing to help. When I was just about to give up, Jasmine, a classmate who was not so close a friend, called and asked me to email her my assignment. I later learnt she downloaded the assignment, printed it, and handed it in together with hers. From then, I am careful about people I treat as friends.

Friendship brings people together to form a greater and stronger whole than its individual parts. Friends act and react in ways that show that they not only love each other but care for them too. It is akin to striking a partnership in which one partner is always there for the other partner in his or her absence. Friends broaden each other’s horizon by opening new doors for each other. They seek to soar beyond limits as a single determined force. Indeed, friendship guarantees one a meaningful and fulfilling life.

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Essay on Importance of Friendship

Students are often asked to write an essay on Importance of Friendship in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Importance of Friendship

The essence of friendship.

Friendship is a valuable treasure in our lives. It is a bond of love, trust, and mutual respect. Friends stand by us in times of joy and sorrow, making life more meaningful.

Role of Friendship

Friends teach us important life lessons. They help us understand different perspectives, fostering empathy and compassion. They also offer emotional support and help us build our confidence.

Friendship and Personal Growth

Friendship encourages personal growth. It nurtures our emotional intelligence, helps us learn to communicate effectively, and develops our problem-solving skills. True friendship is a gift that enriches our life journey.

Also check:

250 Words Essay on Importance of Friendship

Friendship, a profound human experience, is a cornerstone of our social fabric. It transcends the boundaries of race, religion, and culture, fostering an environment of mutual respect, understanding, and shared values.

Psychological Impact of Friendship

Friendship plays a critical role in our psychological well-being. It provides emotional support, helping to mitigate stress and anxiety. Friends serve as a sounding board, allowing us to express our thoughts and emotions freely, which can be therapeutic and contribute to our overall mental health.

Friendship as a Learning Platform

Friendship is also a platform for personal growth and learning. Friends expose us to diverse perspectives, encouraging us to think critically and broaden our horizons. They challenge our beliefs, prompting us to question and refine our viewpoints, fostering our intellectual growth.

The Role of Friendship in Shaping Character

Moreover, friendship shapes our character. The qualities we admire in our friends often inspire us to cultivate those traits within ourselves. They mirror our strengths and weaknesses, helping us to self-reflect and strive for personal improvement.

Friendship and Social Cohesion

On a societal level, friendships foster social cohesion. They promote empathy and tolerance, as we learn to accept our friends’ differences and appreciate our commonalities. This understanding and acceptance can extend beyond our immediate circle, promoting a more inclusive society.

In conclusion, the importance of friendship cannot be overstated. It supports our mental health, encourages personal growth, shapes our character, and promotes social cohesion. Despite its often underestimated value, friendship is an integral part of our lives, enriching our experiences and contributing to our personal and societal well-being.

500 Words Essay on Importance of Friendship

The value of friendship, emotional support and mental health.

One of the primary importances of friendship lies in its capacity to provide emotional support. Friends are our confidants, providing us a safe space to express our feelings, fears, hopes, and dreams without the fear of judgment. They provide comfort during times of stress, acting as a buffer against mental health issues like depression and anxiety. Their presence and understanding can help us navigate through the complexities of life, promoting emotional well-being.

Social Development and Personal Growth

Friendship plays a crucial role in our social development and personal growth. Friends expose us to diverse perspectives, cultures, and experiences, broadening our worldview. They challenge our beliefs, encourage us to step out of our comfort zones, and inspire us to become better versions of ourselves. This process of mutual learning and growth is a significant aspect of friendship.

Resilience in the Face of Adversity

Physical health and longevity.

The importance of friendship extends to our physical health and longevity. Studies suggest that strong social connections can contribute to a longer, healthier life. Friends can encourage positive lifestyle habits such as regular exercise and a balanced diet. Moreover, the happiness derived from friendship can boost our immune system, reducing the risk of chronic diseases.

Friendship and Society

On a larger scale, friendship contributes to societal harmony. It fosters empathy, understanding, and respect among individuals, creating a more inclusive and tolerant society. Friends from diverse backgrounds can help break down cultural and social barriers, promoting unity and cooperation.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

Honest Friend: Building Trust with People you Call Friends

Exploring the importance of honesty in friendships. This essay will provide guidance on building and maintaining trust with friends, and discuss the impact of honesty on strong and lasting relationships. At PapersOwl, you’ll also come across free essay samples that pertain to Empathy.

How it works

All throughout elementary, middle, and high school we have all gained and lost friends but only one remained by your side. That someone is your best friend. Someone that’ll be there for you, believe in you and make you smile no matter what. Even though there are challenges and fights along the way, you guys get through them because the bond that was created is unbreakable. I shine at being a best friend because I experience and express empathy for others, and my trustworthiness.

To commence, I experience and express empathy for others. Empathy is the ability to understand what is going on with a friend, to recognize how he or she is feeling, and to interact and respond accordingly. The ability to be non-judgmental, which ties into empathy, reflects our ease in accepting a friend’s choices, regardless of how they may differ from our own. My best friend’s past relationships and her encounters with other people have affected how she has seen herself. The anguish, and heartache they caused her cut deeper than glass. She thought less of herself and felt as if she didn’t deserve to be loved or cared for by anyone because of how she was treated and talked to by her exes and who she thought where her friends. I aspired to change that. As her best friend it was my duty to be her confidant and her “knight in shining armor”.

Friends are people you can’t always trust?

Building trust is one of the hardest things to do with people you encounter during your lifetime. All people have dealt with this necessary aspect in their life at least once. People take chances and find ways to develop trust and build bonds with others over time. Anyone can have lots of friends, but a friendship starts with someone you can build trust, be honest, and be loyal with always.

Trust is developed overtime based off what actions a person shows you. A true friend you can share happiness and face hardships without being judgmental to you. They can trust you enough to admit their imperfections and faults without trying to fix you in the process. You must be true to and have respect for yourself before you can trust anyone else. Trusting someone who is very supportive and accepts you for who you are as a human being is the beginning of how you build a strong foundation with someone.If you can’t trust them, they’re not a true friend.

Honest friends are always loyal and trustworthy in any friendship. It’s very important because your word is your bond from the start. Friends will stick by each other’s side through thick and thin when they are honest with each other. It makes your moral and values of each other worthy. Even if the circumstances are complicated, the better decision is telling the truth. Honesty saves you from covering up hidden agendas and keeps you in a great friendship

A person who is loyal will always be someone you can trust always. It shows the value of them being a friend and how dedicated they are to you. Loyalty keeps a friendship going and plays a very important role. A true loyal friend will never betray you regardless of the circumstances. It’s important for a friend to display loyalty as one of the most prized qualities to help bind the friendship together. You can’t expect someone to give you loyalty if they can’t be honest or trust you. Even when friends disagree, you will still tell them the truth of the situation.

In conclusion, trusting the people you call friends is based on many strong factors. You must take into account which ones are more important to you in a friendship. I believe it will only work if you remain honest and loyal from the beginning. Then, the trust will always there and no one will question whether or not you’re a true friend.

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Greater Good Science Center • Magazine • In Action • In Education

Why Your Friends Are More Important Than You Think

Researchers and philosophers have explored in great detail the emotional dramas of love and family. But they’ve spent much less time pondering the deep satisfaction of a good friend.

A similar thing happens in our own lives, writes science journalist Lydia Denworth. When something’s gotta give, it’s often our friendships, which take a backseat to our family and work obligations—or our latest fling.

But that’s a mistake, she argues in her new book, Friendship: The Evolution, Biology, and Extraordinary Power of Life’s Fundamental Bond . In fact, research suggests that friendships can help us find purpose and meaning, stay healthy, and live longer. The intimacy, support, equality, and emotional bonds we have in our friendships are unique.

Her book honors the relationships forged through slumber parties, shoulders cried upon, and kindnesses that don’t need to be repaid. “The science of friendship gives you permission to hang out with your friends and call it healthy,” she says. “You’re not being indulgent.” In a conversation with Greater Good , Denworth explains why we need our friends and how to keep those connections strong—even in a pandemic.

Kira Newman: How does friendship change for people across their lifespan?  

Lydia Denworth: When you’re very young, of course, your primary social relationship is with your parents or caregivers. But when kids go to school, they start to have deeper friendships that involve, first, doing things together, and then a deeper, shared emotional element. Then in adolescence, it becomes even more abstract and relational.

All the way through high school and college, friendships can feel easy because you are thrown into an environment where you have lots of same-age peers and the pool of potential friends is big. Also, when you’re an adolescent, your brain is as attuned to social signals and connection as it will ever be. You are really hyper-interested in social activity. 

Then in adulthood, as people start to have jobs and maybe get married or have a family, it can become harder to spend time with your friends. Toward the end of life, we tend to come back around to having a little bit more time once kids are grown and careers and jobs are less demanding. 

There are these transition points in life when it’s easier or harder to spend time with friends, but what is important for people to know is that friendship is a lifelong endeavor and that it is something that people should be paying attention to at all points in life. I think that people sometimes think (especially in their 30s and 40s), “I just don’t have time for friends right now,” and that’s a mistake.

If you get to be 65 and then now you’re ready to start paying attention to friends, well, it’s a little bit like stopping smoking when you’re 65. If you go from 15 to 65 and you smoke the whole time, it’s still better to stop than not, but some damage will have been done. And if you don’t pay attention to friends all the way along, the same thing is true.

KN: You observe in your book that we tend to neglect our friendships when we get busy, more so than other relationships. Can you say more about that?

LD: The reason we do that is that we feel more beholden to our family that we’re related to, and that makes plenty of sense—we’re legally and biologically connected to our family members. So, I’m not saying that we should be spending a lot less time with family. But we also feel that spending time with friends, instead of working, is indulgent.

My message is that it is not necessarily indulgent because having good, strong friendships is as important for yourself as diet and exercise, and so it’s something you need to prioritize. If you are forever canceling on your friends or failing to make a point of seeing them or talking to them or interacting with them, then you are not being a good friend and you are not maintaining a strong relationship. You need your friends to be there down the road. But you have to do the work along the way, or they won’t be there. Friendship does take some time, but that’s kind of good news because (mostly) hanging out with your friends is fun.

The second half of the story, though, is that it’s quite normal for there to be change in our friendships over the course of a lifetime, and that’s OK. Friendship does need to be a relationship that’s longstanding, but you can cycle through several longstanding friendships in the course of your life. So, it isn’t that you can only stay friends with the people you knew when you were young, of course, because plenty of people do make friends in adulthood and those can become closer friends.

If a relationship is not healthy or even if it’s just not serving you well—if it’s not positive, if it’s really draining, or if it’s lopsided and one of you is always helping the other but not vice versa—that’s not so great. I think people need to realize that it is OK to walk away from friendships that aren’t good ones.   KN: That seems like the flipside of all the amazing benefits that we get when we have strong friendships: There’s a lot of potential for pain when we have difficult, conflict-ridden relationships.  

LD: Just like a strong relationship is good for you, a negative relationship is bad for you. Even an ambivalent relationship is bad for you, it turns out, biologically.

An ambivalent relationship is a relationship where you have positive feelings and negative feelings about the person or about your interactions with them. And that’s true of a lot of our relationships—almost half.  

Researchers had a scale of one to five: How positive does this relationship make you feel, and how negative does this relationship make you feel? Anybody who was two or above on both things counted as ambivalent, which is really broad. You could be five on the good and two on the bad. What was interesting was that any relationship that was categorized as ambivalent seemed to generate cardiovascular issues and other kinds of health problems.  

It’s not as surprising that a toxic relationship would be bad for your health. But I think that the problem with ambivalent relationships, which a lot of us have many of, is more surprising. I think most people suspect that the good outweighs the bad, and so far (it’s early days in that research) it doesn’t look that way.

I think that all this is a reminder of the importance of working on relationships—all of them, but including your friendships. There’s real value in a positive friendship.

If it isn’t positive, then you can do a couple of things. One is you can try to make it better, work on it, have a hard conversation, perhaps. Two is you quit and you say, “I’m not going to have this person in my life,” but that can be very dramatic. And three would be that you shuffle that friend to the outer circles of your social life. Maybe it’s not someone you can easily stop seeing, but if you don’t rely on them emotionally anymore, then that’s better for you.  

KN: Are there some practices you would suggest or steps that you take in your own life to put more time and energy into friendship?  

LD: It really does just begin as simply as paying attention and prioritizing. I try regularly to plan to get together with my close friends and the people I care about seeing a lot. We all have relatively busy lives, but I, first of all, make an effort to make the plan, and then I make an effort to get there—to show up. I think showing up is a really critical piece of friendship, in every sense of the phrase.  

It could just be that you don’t have time to get together with someone for dinner for weeks, so you have a phone call and you catch up that way. Taking time to catch up on somebody’s life and hear what’s going on with them is an important indicator of it’s worth my time to know what’s going on in your life . 

In addition, I think it’s useful to remember that science has clarified the definition of a quality relationship. It has to have these minimum three things: It’s a stable, longstanding bond; it’s positive; and it’s cooperative—it’s helpful, reciprocal, I’m there for you, you’re there for me .  

When you’re interacting with your friends, you should be thinking about your side of it. Am I contributing to that? Have I been helpful lately? When was the last time I said something nice or told somebody why I appreciated them or did something nice for someone? Am I a reliable presence in that person’s life? You can think about the way you interact with your friends as needing to fall into those buckets, at a minimum.

The same thing goes for the online, as well: being positive, being helpful, showing up from a distance, whether that’s just checking in by text or sending a funny joke or forwarding an article or calling—making time. People have been stressed and anxious lately, so we need to be there and provide an ear to listen, a shoulder to cry on, even virtually.  

KN: Right now, people in many places haven’t seen their friends for months. What do we miss out on when we can’t be around our friends in person?  

LD: There’s a richness to being with your friends in person, and it hits all your senses. So, we’re not getting any of the tactile sense of being with our friends, and there’s a difference when you see them on a screen vs. when you see them in person, although we don’t entirely know in neuroscientific terms what those differences are yet.  

One of the things our brains do automatically when we’re having a conversation with someone in person is this natural sense of “call and response,” that I’m talking, and then you respond, and then you talk and I respond. We are reading each other’s cues in a way that makes it easier to do that.

When you’re online, sometimes not only is there a little bit of an artificialness to the interaction but there’s literally a lag that’s built in from the technology, and that is quite off-putting for our brains. Our brains recognize that as a different kind of interaction, and they don’t like it very much. I think that’s one reason why some people are being driven crazy by Zoom. And if you have a group on Zoom, it’s very hard figuring out who’s going to speak next. There’s a way that we handle that with nonverbal cues in person that is harder to pull off virtually.  

When you’re in person, you can have a much more natural conversation. There’s an ease and a warmth and a naturalness that we get when we’re with our friends, and I think we really are missing the ability to hug them and high five—that’s big stuff that matters a lot. So, it’s a loss.

That said, people are reporting a lot of positive experiences, even remotely. We’re being forced to interact virtually, but we’re getting a lot of benefits out of it. It’s not the same, but it’s a whole lot better than nothing. Limited though it is, technology has been a lifesaver in this moment. I can’t imagine what this would have been like if we didn’t have it.  

KN: What do you most hope people will take away from the book?

LD: That they will make friendship a priority, that they will call a friend and work harder on thinking about the importance of being a good friend, that parents will think about talking to kids about the importance of friendship and modeling being a good friend and prioritizing it. Parents are full of messages about achievement, and not as many messages about what it means to be a good friend, but I think it’s one of the most important skills that a child can develop. Through all our lives, the importance of friendship has been hiding in plain sight.

About the Author

Kira M. Newman

Kira M. Newman is the managing editor of Greater Good . Her work has been published in outlets including the Washington Post , Mindful magazine, Social Media Monthly , and Tech.co, and she is the co-editor of The Gratitude Project . Follow her on Twitter!

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From Personality to Virtue: Essays on the Philosophy of Character

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8 Friendship and the Structure of Trust

Published: February 2016
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Friendship might seem like a bizarre virtue—or not a virtue at all. Unlike courage and generosity, friendship seems to be a dyadic relation between two people. To be a friend is to be disposed to think, feel, desire, deliberate, act, and react in characteristic ways towards a particular person, who is likewise disposed to think, feel, desire, deliberate, act, and react in those same characteristic ways towards you. If no one else is a friend, then it is conceptually impossible for you to be a friend. This chapter describes some of the more interesting features of friendship, then explores the extent to which other virtues, such as trustworthiness, can be reconstructed as sharing those features.

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Essay on Friendship

Essay generator.

Friendship is a timeless and cherished bond that transcends age, culture, and circumstance. It is a connection that enriches our lives, provides support in times of need, and offers a profound sense of belonging. In this essay, we will delve into the meaning of friendship, its qualities, the significance it holds in our lives, and the art of nurturing and maintaining these invaluable relationships. Understanding friendship is essential for students aiming to participate in essay writing competitions, as it touches upon the very essence of human connection.

Friendship can be defined as a close and meaningful relationship between two or more individuals characterized by mutual affection, trust, understanding, and support. It is a bond formed through shared experiences, interests, and genuine care for each other’s well-being.

Qualities of Friendship

Trust: Trust is the bedrock of friendship. Friends rely on each other and have confidence in the loyalty and reliability of their companions.
Mutual Respect: True friends respect each other’s values, boundaries, and differences. They celebrate each other’s individuality.
Shared Interests: Common interests and hobbies often form the basis of friendships. Shared activities strengthen the bond between friends.
Empathy: Friends offer a listening ear and understanding shoulder in times of joy and sorrow. Empathy deepens the connection and provides emotional support.
Loyalty: Friendship thrives on loyalty. Friends stand by each other through thick and thin, offering unwavering support.

Significance of Friendship

Emotional Support: Friends provide a vital support system during life’s challenges. They offer comfort, encouragement, and a sense of belonging during difficult times.
Mental Well-being: Strong friendships are linked to improved mental health. They reduce stress, increase happiness, and provide a sense of purpose.
Personal Growth: Friends challenge and inspire us to become better versions of ourselves. They offer constructive feedback and encourage self-improvement.
Social Connection: Friendship combats feelings of loneliness and isolation. It enriches our lives with meaningful social interactions.
Happiness: Genuine friendships contribute to our overall happiness and life satisfaction. They create lasting memories and moments of joy.

5 values of friendship

The values of friendship are essential qualities and principles that contribute to the depth and strength of a genuine and meaningful friendship. Here are five values that underpin the essence of true friendship:

Trust: Trust is the foundation of any lasting friendship. It involves having confidence in your friend’s reliability, honesty, and loyalty. Friends should be able to confide in each other, knowing that their secrets and vulnerabilities will be respected.
Respect: Respect in friendship means acknowledging and valuing each other’s individuality, beliefs, boundaries, and differences. Friends treat each other with courtesy and consideration, even when they have contrasting opinions or lifestyles.
Empathy: Empathy is the ability to understand and share in the feelings and experiences of your friend. It involves being a compassionate listener, offering support during challenging times, and celebrating each other’s joys and successes.
Loyalty: Loyalty is a core value in friendship. True friends stand by each other through thick and thin, offering unwavering support and loyalty, even when faced with difficulties or disagreements.
Communication: Open and honest communication is key to a healthy friendship. Friends should be able to express their thoughts, feelings, and concerns without fear of judgment. Effective communication helps in resolving conflicts and strengthening the bond between friends.

These values are the building blocks of strong, enduring friendships that bring joy, support, and fulfillment to the lives of those who cherish them.

Nurturing Friendships

Communication: Open and honest communication is vital for maintaining friendships. Regularly check in with friends, share thoughts and feelings, and actively listen to their concerns.
Quality Time: Spend quality time together, whether in person or virtually. Shared experiences strengthen the bond between friends.
Supportive Acts: Show kindness and support through actions. Be there for your friends when they need you, and offer help willingly.
Resolve Conflicts: Conflicts are natural in any relationship. Address them promptly and constructively, focusing on finding solutions rather than blame.
Respect Boundaries: Respect your friends’ personal boundaries and their need for space when necessary.

The Importance of Friendship in Adolescence:

1. Emotional Support and Understanding:
2. Identity Formation:
3. Social Skills Development:
4. Peer Influence:
5. Sense of Belonging:
6. Coping with Transitions:
7. Lifelong Lessons:

Toxic Friendships

Friendships are typically associated with positivity, trust, and support. However, not all friendships are healthy or beneficial. Toxic friendships are those that have a detrimental impact on your well-being, emotional health, and overall life satisfaction. It’s crucial to recognize the signs of a toxic friendship, understand its consequences, and take steps to address or end it.

Signs of a Toxic Friendship:

Constant Negativity: A toxic friend tends to be consistently negative, complaining, criticizing, and bringing down your mood.
Self-Centeredness: They are primarily focused on their needs, problems, and interests, rarely showing genuine interest in your life.
Manipulation: Toxic friends may use manipulation tactics to control or exploit you, often making you feel guilty or obligated.
Lack of Support: They are not there for you during challenging times, and they may even undermine your goals and aspirations.
Jealousy and Competition: Toxic friends may become envious of your successes and engage in unhealthy competition or passive-aggressive behaviors.
Betrayal of Trust: They may breach your trust by sharing personal information or spreading rumors about you.

In conclusion, friendship is a priceless gem that adds depth and meaning to our lives. It thrives on trust, mutual respect, and support, offering solace in times of need and joy in moments of celebration. As budding writers, we must recognize the profound significance of these bonds, striving to cultivate and cherish them as we navigate life’s journey. Friendship is, indeed, a treasure worth preserving.

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The science of why friendships keep us healthy

American culture prioritizes romance, but psychological science is exploring the human need for platonic relationships and the specific ways in which they bolster well-being

Vol. 54 No. 4 Print version: page 42

Health and Behavior

two men smiling and sitting near each other

American culture places a high premium on romantic love. In fact, relationship woes—or the lack thereof—are among the top reasons people seek therapy. And while romance can be a meaningful part of life, the benefits of friendships should not be overlooked. Psychological research suggests that stable, healthy friendships are crucial for our well-being and longevity.

People who have friends and close confidants are more satisfied with their lives and less likely to suffer from depression ( Choi, K. W., et al., The American Journal of Psychiatry , Vol. 177, No. 10, 2020 ). They’re also less likely to die from all causes, including heart problems and a range of chronic diseases ( Holt-Lunstad, J., et al., PLOS Medicine , Vol. 7, No. 7, 2010 ; Steptoe, A., et al., PNAS , Vol. 110, No. 15, 2013 ).

“On the other hand, when people are low in social connection—because of isolation, loneliness, or poor-quality relationships—they face an increased risk of premature death,” said Julianne Holt-Lunstad, PhD, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University who studies how relationships affect the body and brain.

Fortunately, research also suggests that friendships can be made and maintained at any age, relationships with friends can strengthen or stand in for romantic relationships, and even minimal social interactions can be powerful.

[ Related: Conversations are powerful. Here are ways to embrace the awkward and deepen relationships ]

“Friendship is something we really need to understand. There’s been this preoccupation with romantic relationships, but many of our close relationships are with friends,” said Thalia Wheatley, PhD, a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College who studies social connectivity. “So how do they impact our health?”

How friendship changes the body and brain

Psychological research from around the world shows that having social connections is one of the most reliable predictors of a long, healthy, and satisfying life.

A review of 38 studies found that adult friendships, especially high-quality ones that provide social support and companionship, significantly predict well-being and can protect against mental health issues such as depression and anxiety—and those benefits persist across the life span ( Pezirkianidis, C., et al., Frontiers in Psychology , Vol. 14, 2023 ; Blieszner, R., et al., Innovation in Aging , Vol. 3, No. 1, 2019 ). People with no friends or poor-quality friendships are twice as likely to die prematurely, according to Holt-Lunstad’s meta-analysis of more than 308,000 people—a risk factor even greater than the effects of smoking 20 cigarettes per day ( PLOS Medicine , Vol. 7, No. 7, 2010 ).

“In the face of life’s challenges, having a close friend to turn to seems to be a buffer or protective factor against some of the negative outcomes we might otherwise see,” said Catherine Bagwell, PhD, a professor of psychology at Davidson College in North Carolina.

Friendships protect us in part by changing the way we respond to stress. Blood pressure reactivity is lower when people talk to a supportive friend rather than a friend whom they feel ambivalent about ( Holt-Lunstad, J., et al., Annals of Behavioral Medicine , Vol. 33, No. 3, 2007 ). Participants who have a friend by their side while completing a tough task have less heart rate reactivity than those working alone ( Kamarck, T. W., et al., Psychosomatic Medicine , Vol. 52, No. 1, 1990 ). In one study, people even judged a hill to be less steep when they were accompanied by a friend ( Schnall, S., et al., Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , Vol. 44, No. 5, 2008 ).

Scientists studying friendship have even found similar brain activity among friends in regions responsible for a range of functions, including motivation, reward, identity, and sensory processing ( Güroğlu, B., Child Development Perspectives , Vol. 16, No. 2, 2022 ). When Wheatley and her colleagues collected fMRI data on people in a social network, closer friends had more similar brain activity when watching a series of video clips ( Nature Communications , Vol. 9, 2018 ). In another study, currently under review, she and her colleagues can even begin to predict whether first-year MBA students at Dartmouth will later become friends based solely on their neural patterns.

“The big surprise here is that the similarities are all over the brain, including regions that control how we direct our attention, how we think about things, and even what we’re looking at,” Wheatley said.

The risks of social isolation

On the other side of the coin, research has shown that loneliness—among people who lack quality friendships, romantic partnerships, or other relationships—increases our risk for heart attack, stroke, and premature death, according to a longitudinal study of nearly 480,000 U.K. residents ( Hakulinen, C., et al., Heart , Vol. 104, No. 18, 2018 ). A meta-analysis by Holt-Lunstad estimates that loneliness increases the risk of early death as much as 26% ( Perspectives on Psychological Science , Vol. 10, No. 2, 2015 ).

Those findings have prompted leading health organizations, including the American Heart Association and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), to warn the public against the dangers of isolation, particularly for older adults ( Cené, C. W., et al., Journal of the American Heart Association , Vol. 11, No. 16, 2022 ; Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults: Opportunities for the Health Care System , NASEM, 2020).

Despite the risks, Americans are getting lonelier. In 2021, 12% of U.S. adults said they did not have any close friends, up from 3% in 1990 ( “The State of American Friendship: Change, Challenges, and Loss,” Survey Center on American Life, 2021 ). That decline began well before the Covid -19 pandemic, with companionship and social engagement among friends, family, and others decreasing steadily over the past two decades ( Kannan, V. D., & Veazie, P. J., SSM – Population Health , Vol. 21, 2023 ).

Social disconnection, which is rising across age groups, appears to have worsened after 2012, when smartphones and social media became virtually ubiquitous. An international study of high school students found that between 2012 and 2018, school loneliness increased in 36 of 37 countries ( Twenge, J. M., et al., Journal of Adolescence , Vol. 93, No. 1, 2021 ).

“There were significant downward trends in social contact even before the pandemic,” Holt-Lunstad said. “What’s remarkable about that is that ‘getting back to normal’ is not going to be enough—because it wasn’t looking good before.”

The Covid -19 pandemic likely exacerbated an existing trend toward social isolation—and it also provided a natural way for scientists to measure the effects of that shift. Bagwell and psychologist Karen Kochel, PhD, of the University of Richmond, found that college students with less social support from their friends during the first year of the pandemic also had more problems with anxiety, depression, and academic adjustment ( Emerging Adulthood , Vol. 10, No. 5, 2022 ).

“For these students, their relationships with their friends and peers were quite significant in predicting how they were doing, both academically and in terms of their emotional adjustment,” Bagwell said.

[ Related: Making new friends and keeping existing ones is hard. Here’s some science-backed tips to help ]

The strength of “weak” ties

Having a close friend or confidant is undeniably good for us, but psychologists have found that interactions with acquaintances—and even strangers—can also give our mental health a boost. A casual relationship with the operator of a hot dog stand in Toronto helped Gillian Sandstrom, PhD, feel grounded and connected while pursuing her master’s degree. The relationship also inspired Sandstrom, now a senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Sussex, to start studying “weak” social ties.

These connections with acquaintances—a work friend you bump into once a week, the pet store employee who remembers your cat—can be surprisingly sustaining. Sandstrom’s research has found that people who have more weak-tie interactions are happier than those who have fewer and that people tend to be happier on days when they have more than their average number of weak-tie interactions ( Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , Vol. 40, No. 7, 2014 ). She also encourages talking to strangers and has shown that repeated practice can make doing so easier and more enjoyable ( Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , Vol. 102, 2022 ).

“These minimal social interactions give us something important that we missed during the pandemic: novelty,” Sandstrom said. “We learn surprising things when we have unplanned encounters and conversations with people,” a benefit that people tend to underestimate ( Atir, S., et al., PNAS , Vol. 119, No. 34, 2022 ).

People often avoid conversations with strangers, assuming they will be awkward or shallow, but research suggests those worries may be overblown. Psychologist Nicholas Epley, PhD, of the University of Chicago, and his colleagues have found that conversations with strangers tend to be less awkward, more enjoyable, and more connecting than people expect. To their own surprise, people also tend to prefer having deep conversations with strangers over shallow ones ( Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , Vol. 122, No. 3, 2022 ).

Sandstrom has some advice for connecting with strangers: Tap into your curiosity. Ask someone what they’re reading, for example, or why they’re wearing airplane earrings. Another tip: Comment on the shared situation. While standing in the checkout line at a mini-mart, Sandstrom once connected with a fellow customer over the store’s unusual mishmash of Halloween and Christmas decorations.

“You’re in the same place at the same time as the other person, so there’s always something in common,” she said.

Lovers and friends

We tend to see friendship and romance as separate entities, but the two may have more in common than we realize. Psychological research points to qualities such as chemistry, intimacy, and warmth as key building blocks of close, stable friendships ( Ledbetter, A. M., et al., Personal Relationships , Vol. 14, No. 2, 2007 ; Campbell, K., et al., The Social Science Journal , Vol. 52, No. 2, 2015 ).

Regular interactions with acquaintances—the local coffee barista, for example—make people happier.

“When we view behaviors that create intimacy—being vulnerable, buying gifts, taking someone out on a date—as only appropriate for a romantic relationship, we end up limiting the potential of our friendships,” said psychologist Marisa G. Franco, PhD, an assistant clinical professor at the University of Maryland and author of Platonic , a book about making and keeping friends. “Many of us could really benefit from blurring the lines between the two.”

Conversely, romantic relationships may be more fulfilling if they look more like friendships. An analysis of nearly 8,000 respondents to the British Household Panel Survey showed that life satisfaction was about twice as high among people who said their spouse was also their best friend ( “How’s Life at Home? New Evidence on Marriage and the Set Point for Happiness,” NBER Working Paper No. 20794, 2014 ).

Research also suggests a symbiosis between romantic and platonic relationships, Franco said, suggesting that one can benefit the other. For example, marital conflict can trigger unhealthy changes in cortisol levels, but that harm is buffered when spouses feel they have adequate social support outside the marriage ( Keneski, E., et al., Social Psychological and Personality Science , Vol. 9, No. 8, 2017 ). Other research indicates that women who have social support are more resilient to stress that occurs within a marriage ( Abbas, J., et al., Journal of Affective Disorders , Vol. 244, 2019 ).

There’s also reason to believe that skills developed in friendships can be carried forward into healthier romantic relationships, particularly among teens and young adults.

“Friendships are the first relationships in life that we get to freely choose,” said Melanie Dirks, PhD, a professor of psychology at McGill University in Montreal who studies peer relationships in children, adolescents, and young adults. “Because of that, they present a really important opportunity to learn how to navigate challenging interpersonal situations before we enter relationships as adults.”

For example, self-disclosure between friends—sharing thoughts and feelings—helps young adults build empathy for others, practice seeking and providing social support, and even solidify their identities, said Rebecca Schwartz-Mette, PhD, an associate professor of clinical psychology and director of the Peer Relations Lab at the University of Maine who studies friendship in children, adolescents, and young adults.

Many young adults in the United States are juggling life transitions, stress, and developmental challenges—and friends are typically their main sources of social support, which makes them critical for psychologists to study and understand, said Dirks.

She has studied the types of challenges that tend to arise in young adult friendships, finding that they undergo strain for one of three reasons: needs are in conflict (for example: there’s one spot on a sports team that both friends want); a transgression occurs (for example: one friend reveals private information about the other); or friends have trouble exchanging support (for example: one has a problem with alcohol use, but the other doesn’t know how to help) ( Journal of Research on Adolescence , Vol. 31, No. 2, 2021 ).

In childhood and adolescence, high-quality friendships can protect kids from mental health issues—such as anxiety and depression—that might otherwise result from social challenges, including being bullied ( Bayer, J. K., et al., Child and Adolescent Mental Health , Vol. 23, No. 4, 2018 ). But there are also conditions where mental health struggles can harm friendships. Schwartz-Mette and her colleagues have found that between friends, excessive self-disclosure about life’s challenges (known as “corumination”) can trigger distancing within a friendship or even lead to the social contagion of depression, self-injury, and suicidality ( Developmental Psychology , Vol. 50, No. 9, 2014 ; Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology , Vol. 47, No. 6, 2018 ).

“Our goal in isolating these different friendship trajectories is to inform interventions for people who are distressed—so that they can keep their relationships and have that crucial social support but not overtax or overstress their relationship partners,” Schwartz-Mette said.

Supporting healthy friendships

Given the clear benefits of friendship, psychologists say we should promote platonic social connection across society—including in school, at work, in public spaces (such as on public transportation), and through entertainment.

“After having to reduce social contact during the pandemic, we’ve realized how it impacts basically every sector of society,” said Holt-Lunstad. “That suggests that each of these sectors can potentially play a role in solutions.”

Researchers still have a lot to learn about how and why social connection supports health and well-being. The National Institutes of Health and other organizations are distributing funding for studies on “dyadic processes”—or interactions between two people—including exciting new efforts to collect fMRI data on friends while they communicate.

“What we know is that if we don’t interact regularly, things go really bad remarkably fast. But what is the magic in these interactions that’s keeping us healthy and sane?” Wheatley asked. “More and more researchers are saying there’s this huge part of human behavior we know very little about. Let’s change that.”

Further resources

The role of friendships in well-being Fehr, B., & Harasmychuk, C. In Maddux, J. E. (Ed.), Subjective Well-Being and Life Satisfaction, Routledge , 2017

Beyond the isolated brain: The promise and challenge of interacting minds Wheatley, T., et al., Neuron , 2019

Adult friendship and wellbeing: A systematic review with practical implications Pezirkianidis, C., et al., Frontiers in Psychology , 2023

What prevents people from making friends: A taxonomy of reasons Apostolou, M., & Keramari, D., Personality and Individual Differences , 2020

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Making Friends and The Importance of Friendship

Categories: Friendship

About this sample

Words: 1035 |

Published: Feb 8, 2022

Words: 1035 | Pages: 2 | 6 min read

Friendship essay outline, friendship essay example, introduction.

The importance of making friends in life

Types of Friends

The value of having diverse types of friends
The positive impacts of different types of friends on one's life

Polar Opposite Friend

The benefits of having a friend who is a polar opposite
Encouragement to try new things and gain new perspectives
Creating a balance in the friendship

Builder Friend

The role of a builder friend in providing support and guidance
Trustworthiness and honesty in the relationship
Pushing you to achieve your goals and dreams

Best Friend

The unique bond and connection with a best friend
Honesty, emotional support, and no-judgment zone
Unconditional love and encouragement to be a better person
The importance of surrounding oneself with supportive and caring friends
The impact of friendships on personal growth and happiness

Works Cited:

Baker, E. D. (1989). "Symbolism in Eudora Welty's 'A Worn Path.'" In E. D. Jones (Ed.), Masterplots II: Short Story Series (Vol. 7, pp. 3925-3927). Salem Press.
Cowart, D. (1984). "Phoenix Has No Coat: Historicity, Eschatology, and Scapegoating in 'A Worn Path.'" Studies in Short Fiction, 21(1), 45-56.
Duvall, J. D. (2004). "Overview of 'A Worn Path'." In Short Stories for Students (Vol. 19, pp. 1-15). Gale.
Evans, R. C. (1973). "The Art of 'A Worn Path.'" The Southern Review, 9(1), 101-108.
Friedmann, M. (1990). "The Inverted World of Eudora Welty's 'A Worn Path.'" College Language Association Journal, 33(3), 282-289.
Gaudet, M. (1989). "Life and Death in Eudora Welty's 'A Worn Path.'" In E. D. Jones (Ed.), Masterplots II: Short Story Series (Vol. 7, pp. 3922-3925). Salem Press.
Grimsley, R. (1984). "Eudora Welty's 'A Worn Path': The Eternal Quest of Welty's Phoenix Jackson." Mississippi Quarterly, 37(4), 539-550.
Korb, R. (2017). "A Worn Path." In Masterpieces of American Short Fiction (pp. 222-228). Greenwood Press.
Moreland, R. (2010). "Eudora Welty's 'A Worn Path' and the Slave Narrative Tradition." The Southern Literary Journal, 43(2), 15-26.
Smith, E. A. (1984). "The Journey of Life: Symbolism in Eudora Welty's 'A Worn Path.'" The Mississippi Quarterly, 37(2), 231-239.

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Why Is Trust Important in a Friendship: Persuasive Essay
Cite this essay. Download. Friendship is fundamental for the fruitful prosperity of each individual. It is based on the straightforward rules of belief and trustworthiness. A genuine friend is a person who will be able to continually move on after he or she confronts challenges and genuine issues. He or she continually offers a shoulder to cry ...
The Importance of Trust in a Friendship Essay
With trust, one is able to build more relationships with others because one is able to share a part of their life. There are different kinds of trust which is trust in family, trust in friends, and how fragile trust really is. One's trust in family is a big importance because one lived with them from birth until one matures.
The Importance of Friendship: Ways to Nurture and Strengthen
In this essay, we explored the definition of friendship, highlighting its deep and lasting bond based on trust and mutual respect. We discussed the importance of friendship in people's lives, the characteristics of a good friend, and the benefits it brings, including emotional support, increased happiness, and improved mental and physical health.
Why Is Trust Important In A Friendship Essay
Friendship is a very important thing because it can give you a feeling of like somebody really cares and nothing else can make you feel this way. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is a really good novel. It shows you the importance of friendship. He uses the two main characters in the novel, George and Lennie.
The Power of Friendship: an Unbreakable Bond of Trust and Support
The Power of Friendship: An Unbreakable Bond of Trust and Support. [online]. ... The Limits of Friendship Analysis Essay. Friendship is a fundamental aspect of human relationships, providing support, companionship, and emotional connection. However, it is important to recognize that there are limits to what friendship can provide. ...
Friendship: The Importance of Trust Essay
Friendship is a necessary aspect of every human's life, as we are not self sufficient in and of ourselves (Other Selves, pg. 30). Despite its necessity, in some cases we are either forced or morally required to end relationships. When the trust between two parties has been broken, the loyalty of the friendship is soiled, and it is therefore a ...
Trust In Friendship (Essay Sample)
Trust In Friendship (Essay Sample) September 13, 2017 Essay Samples, Free Essay Samples. Friendship is a bond of mutual fondness between two people. It is a solid form of interpersonal affiliation than an alliance. Friendship has been investigated in academic sphere such as sociology, communication, philosophy, anthropology, and social psychology.
Essay on Friendship: Samples to Check for A+ Writing
500 Words Essay Sample on Importance of Friendship. The Significance of Friendship: A Core Component in Human Life. Friendship, an intricate tapestry woven from shared experiences, mutual respect, and genuine camaraderie, stands as a cornerstone in the edifice of human existence.
Essay on True Friendship
A true friendship is a connection that transcends the boundaries of self, creating a bond that is both profound and essential. It is a relationship that is not based on any superficiality but on mutual respect, understanding, and shared values. This essay delves into the essence of true friendship, its importance, and how it shapes our lives.
Essay on Value of Friendship
100 Words Essay on Value of Friendship The Importance of Friendship. Friendship is a precious gift in our lives. It provides us with love, support, and companionship. ... it is a profound connection that transcends superficial interactions. It is a relationship built on trust, mutual respect, and shared experiences. Friends serve as mirrors ...
Essay on Friendship for Students and Children
500+ Words Essay on Friendship. Friendship is one of the greatest bonds anyone can ever wish for. Lucky are those who have friends they can trust. Friendship is a devoted relationship between two individuals. They both feel immense care and love for each other. Usually, a friendship is shared by two people who have similar interests and ...
The Importance of Friendship: Building, Maintaining, and Navigating
In conclusion, friendship is an essential aspect of human life that offers emotional and mental support, personal growth, and positive influence on behavior and decision-making. Building and maintaining friendships require effort, communication, and understanding. A good friend is trustworthy, loyal, honest, supportive, empathetic, has a sense of humor, and shares common interests.
The Importance of Friendship
Having solid friendships is important for two main reasons. First, they make life more enjoyable. We get to share the beautiful aspects of life with people who we love, which can enrich our ...
Importance of Friendship Essay Example, with Outline
Importance of Friendship Essay Outline. Introduction. Thesis: Friendship brings people together in a bond that helps them realize and experience a meaningful life. Body. Paragraph 1: A good friend is always available irrespective of the circumstances. A true friend cares for their friends, accepts them unconditionally, tolerates their ...
Essay on Importance of Friendship
The importance of friendship extends to our physical health and longevity. Studies suggest that strong social connections can contribute to a longer, healthier life. Friends can encourage positive lifestyle habits such as regular exercise and a balanced diet. Moreover, the happiness derived from friendship can boost our immune system, reducing ...
Honest Friend: Building Trust with People you Call Friends
Exploring the importance of honesty in friendships. This essay will provide guidance on building and maintaining trust with friends, and discuss the impact of honesty on strong and lasting relationships. At PapersOwl, you'll also come across free essay samples that pertain to Empathy.
Why Your Friends Are More Important Than You Think
LD: That they will make friendship a priority, that they will call a friend and work harder on thinking about the importance of being a good friend, that parents will think about talking to kids about the importance of friendship and modeling being a good friend and prioritizing it. Parents are full of messages about achievement, and not as ...
Importance of Trust Essay
Importance of Trust Essay. Trust is the foundation of personal relationships, providing a sense of security and support. When trust is present, individuals feel safe to be vulnerable, share openly, and rely on each other for emotional support. This allows couples to build a strong and lasting bond, friends to confide in each other, and families ...
Friendship and the Structure of Trust
Friendship might seem like a bizarre virtue—or not a virtue at all. Unlike courage and generosity, friendship seems to be a dyadic relation betwe ... Alfano, Mark, 'Friendship and the Structure of Trust', in Alberto Masala, and Jonathan Webber (eds), From Personality to Virtue: Essays on the Philosophy of Character (Oxford, 2016; ...
Essay on Friendship [Edit & Download], Pdf
Essay on Friendship. Friendship is a timeless and cherished bond that transcends age, culture, and circumstance. It is a connection that enriches our lives, provides support in times of need, and offers a profound sense of belonging. In this essay, we will delve into the meaning of friendship, its qualities, the significance it holds in our ...
The science of friendship
Psychological research suggests that stable, healthy friendships are crucial for our well-being and longevity. People who have friends and close confidants are more satisfied with their lives and less likely to suffer from depression (Choi, K. W., et al., The American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 177, No. 10, 2020).
Making Friends and The Importance of Friendship
A friend that will always build you up in life, they know who you are and what you need. This friend is someone you trust to help you navigate through difficult aspects of your life. It is someone whose advice you can trust and depend on. Someone who will lift you up, yet be honest with you when push comes to shove.
How important is trust in friendships?. Essay.
The importance of trust in friendship is paramount, and it is what distinguishes a true friend from a casual acquaintance. Trust is essential in relationships as it helps in promoting open communication and honesty. Friends who trust each other can share their innermost feelings and desires without worrying that they will be judged or criticized.
The Importance of Professionalism in Housekeeping: Building Trust with
In the housekeeping industry, professionalism is more than just making a home sparkle; it's about earning your client's trust. Through consistent, high-quality service, respect, and strong ethics, you can build a loyal client base that fuels success. In this article, we'll explore some key elements of professionalism and how strong, trusting client relationships can supercharge […]