Friendship

Friendship is a relationship and concern between individuals and provides positive emotional support. Friends care for one another and look out for each other.

Value that is found in friendships is often the result of a friend demonstrating the following
on a consistent basis:

The tendency to desire what is best for the other Sympathy and empathy Honesty, perhaps in situations where it may be difficult for others to speak the truth, especially in terms of pointing out the perceived faults of one's counterpart Mutual understanding and compassion; ability to go to each other for emotional support Enjoyment of each other's company Trust in one another Positive reciprocity a relationship is based on equal give-and-take between the two parties. The ability to be oneself, express one's feelings and make mistakes without fear of judgement.

Quality of Friendship: Two Dimensions Friendship has two dimensions (Demir, 2007). The two dimension include: quality and conflict. The quality of friendship is important for a persons well being and it contributes to the closeness of friends. Within the quality of friendship, it is important to have healthy and interesting interaction. This type of interaction leads to a higher quality of friendship. The second dimension is conflict, which connects with the quality of friendships. High quality friendships have great ways of resolving conflict which ultimately leads to a stronger and healthier relationship.

Types of friendships
Acquaintance: not a true friendsharing of emotional ties is absent. An example would be a coworker with whom one enjoys eating lunch or having coffee, but would not look to for emotional support. Many "friends" that appear on social networking sites are generally acquaintances in real life. Best friend (or close friend): A person someone shares extremely strong interpersonal ties with as a friend. Blood brother or blood sister: Either people related by birth, or a circle of friends who swear loyalty by mixing the blood of each member together. However, the latter carries the risk of transmitting infections such as HIV.

Bro or Bruh: Slang used primarily in the USA by teenage and young adult men to describe a male close friend. This term is currently used to describe the modern generation of collegeage male party goers. A bro is someone who one identifies with on a deeper level. The true bro is a person who is the male's brother, a friend so close, that blood relations do not matter. Sis: Female equivalent of "bro". Buddy: In the USA, males and sometimes females often refer to each other as "buddies", for example, introducing a male friend as their "buddy", or a circle of male friends as "buddies". The term may also refer to an online contact, such as the AOL Buddy List. It is also referred to a close friend. Casual relationship or "friends with benefits" Family friend: A friendship extended to family members of the friends. Close relation is developed in those societies where family setup is strong. Comrade: Means "ally", "friend", or "colleague" in a military or political connotation. This is the feeling of affinity that draws people together in time of war or when people have a mutual enemy or even a common goal. Friendship can be mistaken for comradeship. Frenemy: A portmanteau of the words fr(iend) and enemy, the term frenemy refers to someone who pretends to be a friend but actually is an enemya proverbial wolf in sheep's clothing in the world of friendships. This is also known as a lovehate relationship. Imaginary friend: a non-physical friend created by a child or even an adult. Sometimes they are human; other times, they are animals, Imaginary friends are also created for people desperate for social interaction but are isolated from contact with humans and pets. Internet relationship: a form of friendship or romance which takes place over the Internet. Some internet friendships evolve into real-life friendships. Internet friendships are in similar context to pen pals. These friendships are also based on the thought that the other person that they may not have ever met in real life knows them for who they are instead of the mask they may use in real life. Pen pal: people who have a relationship via postal correspondence. Now pen pals have been established into internet friendships with the use of chat or social networking sites.

Non-personal friendships
Although the term initially described relations between individuals, it is at times used for political purposes to describe relations between states or peoples (the "FrancoGerman friendship", for example), indicating in this case an affinity or mutuality of purpose between the two nations.

This is often paraphrased as: "Nations have no permanent friends and no permanent enemies. Only permanent interests." The word friendship can be used in political speeches as an emotive modifier. Friendship in international relationships often refers to the quality of historical, existing, or anticipated bilateral relationships.

Ending a friendship
It is only natural that some friendships will end for many different reasons. Sometimes friends move away from each other and are forced to move on due to the distance. Sometimes divorce causes an end to friendships. This is because one parent may end up with custody of the children and the other parent may have to move out. Friends may have different opinions regarding the divorce and may pick sides, which is how some divorced parents lose friends along the way. At a younger age friendships may end as a result of acceptance into new groups. This can cause some friends to move on to a more popular group while other friends are left behind. There are always choices to make when starting and ending friendships. However, ending a friendship should be done in an appropriate way. For example, not talking to someone anymore or not answering their phone calls doesnt give an adequate reason as to why you no longer want to be friends. Giving a reason such as You dont listen to me so I cant be your friend anymore, is a better way to exit the relationship. Other reasons for ending a friendship include:

They are sarcastic or mean to you often They are not trust worthy and tells your secrets They go after your crush or significant other They dont want you to have other friends They dont listen to you They push you to do dangerous things They blame you for what's not good in their lives