Behaviours, Qualities, Importance And Ways Of Improving Friendship

 

Friendship is a state of being emotionally attached to another person, resulting from feelings of affection. It is also a warm and intimate relationship with someone you like and trust. Friends provide a basic source of happiness, pleasure and companionship.

The importance of friendship cannot be over-emphasised. Friendship is important because:

·         Young people learn social skills through friendship

·         It provides opportunities for young people to share experiences and insights

·         Skills gained in articulating feelings and thoughts will be helpful throughout life

·         It promotes self-esteem

·         It helps in building self-confidence

·         It provides companionship

·         It involves fun, sharing and caring

·         It promotes mutual respect

·         Appropriate inter-personal communication skills are developed

There are ways to develop friendship skills. These include:

·         Keep secrets and build trust

·         Develop understanding and empathy

·         Practice active listening skills by

                                i.            Establish eye contact with the other person

                              ii.            Listen to the person without interruption

                            iii.            Listen to the person without thinking of what you will say next

                            iv.            Empathise with the person as he or she is speaking

                              v.            Use “I” statements

There are however behaviours and qualities that enhances friendship, these include:

·         Forgiveness

·         Trust

·         Loyalty

·         Ability to keep confidences

·         Cooperation

·         Honesty

·         Shared interests

·         Support during good and bad times

·         Reliability

·         Empathy

·         Respect

·         Understanding

·         Affection

·         Sympathy

Friendship need to be improved and the way by which it can be improved are:

·         Having group activities

·         Sharing information

·         Exchanging gifts

·         Sharing goals and aspirations

·         Visiting each other’s family and other friends

·         Dating, with no expectation for shared sexual activity

·         Solving assignments together

·         Giving support in times of trouble

·         Making positive comments about each other

·         Having fun together

Due to the importance of friendship, it is of utmost importance that friends must make all efforts to keep their friends and make new ones. Behaviours that could destroy friendship include:

·         Gossiping

·         Disclosing confidential information

·         Bullying

·         Peer pressure

·         Dishonesty

·         Selfishness

·         Suspicious

·         Disrespect

·         Misunderstanding

·         Betrayal of trust

   

The Different Kinds Of Friends

There are different types of friends. While some are close friends, others are not so close; yet others are mere acquaintances, i.e. people you know but do not consider as friends. The social and cultural environments often influence friendships. The view used to be prevalent that friendships between males and females should be discouraged between puberty and marriage. This erroneous view is rooted in the belief that males and females cannot relate to each other in a caring way without having shared sexual activities.

It is a view supported by traditions that deny women the right to decline sexual advances from men with whom they seek friendship. Friendship between young people should not be discouraged on these grounds. Both need special attention during this time. However, young people making friends across the lines of gender divide should observe certain important precautions. The female will need to avoid the pitfalls of early and unwanted sexual intercourse. Guys will need to develop respect for the opposite sex as their equals. There should be no expectation that shared sexual activity is necessary in a friendship, even when the friends are of the opposite sex. Indeed, sexual activity in a relationship does not necessarily indicate that there is a friendship.

There are qualities and/or behaviours that enhance friendship. These include Forgiveness, trust, loyalty, ability to keep confidences, cooperation, honesty, shared interest, support during good and bad times, reliability, empathy, respect, understanding, affection, and sympathy.

There are also ways of improving friendship. These among others include; having group activities, sharing information, exchanging gifts, sharing goals and aspirations, visiting each other’s family and other friends, dating, with no expectation for shared sexual activity, solving assignments together, giving support in times of trouble, making positive comments about each other, and having fun together.

Ofcourse, while we should know about how to build trust in friendship, we should know that there are some behavior that could be detrimental to friendship. These are gossiping, disclosing confidential information, bullying, peer pressure, dishonesty, selfishness, suspicion, disrespect, misunderstanding and betrayal of trust. So we must learn to keep away from doing these things.

   

The Meaning Of Friendship

Friendship is a state of being emotionally attached to another person, resulting from feelings of affection. It is also a warm and intimate relationship with someone you like and trust. It often does not involve any sexual interactions. Friends provide a basic source of happiness, pleasure and companionship. Friendship is very crucial to adolescents because it helps to ease the transition from childhood to adulthood. It also provides opportunity for acquiring experiences, which would aid the process of developing a self-identity and enhance the ability to socialize, develop appropriate inter-personal communication and conflict management skills.

Friendships are among the most important relationship we form in life. Through friendship, individuals come to know, trust, and depend on each other for affection, acceptance and support. The most important relationships outside of the family are those we establish with our friends.

True friendship involves:

·         Mutual respect, which means relating with others in ways that honor their personal values, decisions and choices, even if they differ from ours.

·         Acceptance of people as they are and not always trying to change or make them live up to our own expectations.

·         Honest communication, which is the sharing of truth and being able to talk about sensitive issues or negative behaviors without malice.

·         Support, which involves being able to support each other consistently; being able to depend upon someone.

Other things that draw people together in friendship may include: common interest, similarity of values and attitude, warmth, ability to keep confidences, age, background, loyalty and gender.

The avenues through which friendship can be made include: peer group, neighborhood, school/class mates, religious gatherings, workplace, and playgroup. Friendship is so important because:

·         People learn social skills from friendship

·         It provide opportunity for people to share experiences

·         It promote self-esteem

·         It helps build self-confidence

·         It provides companionship

·         It involves fun, sharing and caring

·         It promotes mutual respect

·         Appropriate inter-personal communication skills are developed