Aspects of Friendship in College
Transition from High School to College
College offers a new setting in which young adults can try different activities and identities and form new interests and friendships (Oswald & Clark, 2003). Almost all college students in Oswald and Clark’s (2003) research reported finding a new ‘closest’ friend during the first month of college. Many high school students are leaving home for the first time and their friends are going in opposite directions from them. This causes a strain on these friendships they experience many changes during the first year of college. By the end of the first year, about half of high school friendships drop down to either close or casual friendships. However, maintaining a friendship might be helpful for buffering isolation and promoting adjustments to college. Strong social interaction and positive friendships aid in the adjustment to university life.
Gender
Gender is consistently important in the friendships of college students. Research has shown that the friendships of women are deeper, more supportive, closer and lower in conflict when compared to friendships of men (Demir & Orthel, 2011).
Diversity
Nine years after college, students exposed to diversity at their university reported more diversity in their neighborhood, work and friendship settings (Fischer, 2008). Research found that adults who interacted in diverse settings as children were more likely to have close diverse friendships as adults. Universities and colleges have a compelling concern for recruiting and retaining a diverse student population in order to prepare their attendees for citizenship in a diverse democracy (Park, 2012). Students do not arrive on campus with blank slates; many come with year...
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...dults. Psychology And Aging, 5(3), 451-457. doi:10.1037/0882-7974.5.3.451
King, A. R., & Terrance, C. (2008). Best friendship qualities and mental health symptomatology among young adults. Journal Of Adult Development, 15(1), 25-34. doi:10.1007/s10804- 007-9031-6
Oswald, D. L., & Clark, E. M. (2003). Best friends forever?: High school best friendships and the transition to college. Personal Relationships, 10(2), 187-196. doi:10.1111/1475- 6811.00045
Park, J. J. (2012). When race and religion collide: The effect of religion on interracial friendship during college. Journal Of Diversity In Higher Education, 5(1), 8-21. doi:10.1037/a0026960
Sias, P. M., Pedersen, H., Gallagher, E. B., & Kopaneva, I. (2012). Workplace friendship in the electronically connected organization. Human Communication Research, 38(3), 253-279. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.2012.01428.x
“College campuses are not dominated by widespread racial/ethnic segregation and the racial/ethnic clustering that does occur isn’t impeding intergroup contact.” (578, Hoeffner and Hoeffner). Throughout the essay, the writer continues to provide facts and sources on the information that diversity is not a problem on college campuses. She quotes evidence that states that college students are getting a “variety of positive educational outcomes that result from being educated in a diverse environment.” (578, Hoeffner and Hoeffner).
Marion Winik’s “What Are Friends For?” expresses the characteristics of friendships and their importance in her existence. Winik begins by stating her theory of how some people can’t contribute as much to a friendship with their characteristic traits, while others can fulfill the friendship. She illustrates the eight friendships she has experienced, categorized as Buddies, Relative Friends, Work Friends, Faraway Friends, Former Friends, Friends You Love to Hate, Hero Friends, and New Friends. In like manner, the friendships that I have experienced agree and contradict with Winik’s categorizations.
This article discusses the different forms of racial diversity contribution to students’ educational and learning experiences and the autonomous positive effects on students who adopt these diversity opportunities. The author demonstrates how the quality of higher education is substantially heightened by diversity-connected efforts. Those efforts improve students learning and experiences by cultivating key behaviors and knowledge and by providing a unique educational context.
Fischer, M. J. (2008). Does Campus Diversity Promote Friendship Diversity? A Look at Interracial Friendships in College. Social Science Quarterly (Wiley-Blackwell), 89(3), 631-655.
The essay, “Diversity: The Value of Discomfort” is an argument written by Ronald L Leibowitz in which he addresses a group of graduates about the value of diversity in college. To me, diversity means the unique backgrounds which influence people’s thoughts, ideas, and opinions. Each of the factors in an individual’s background makes them unique, and creates an important facet of our communities. However, we need to recognize and understand diversity, and simply “celebrating” it is not enough—we must embrace it in our colleges, workplaces, neighborhoods, and larger societies.
Friendship expectations play a huge role in “establishing, maintaining, and terminating friendships” thus playing a factor of ones’ interpretations and through their affiliations (West & Turner, 2016). A companionship is dependent on
When diversity is being discussed, there are a plethora of ideas that are associated with it. Whether people are talking being put on a waitlist for college, about people of color, or about representation in the media, the subject of diversity is not rare. Recently, the conversation of diversity has become more common because colleges want to demonstrate that they have diversified campus. How would diversity on campus be defined? Most importantly, diversity is more than having an extraordinary personality. Race, gender, sexuality, and social status are a few of the superfluous traits that make an individual unique in a college’s eyes. In Sophia Kerby’s article, “10 Reasons Why We Need Diversity on College Campuses”, she notes that, while there has already been an effort to diversify high schools and middle schools, accepting students of different backgrounds is not as apparent in higher education (1) . A university desires to diversify its campus in order to benefit the students that are attending the college. Students are not only likely to improve
From a young age most people have gone through many relationships with other people who were not their family. Thus, we often acknowledge these relationships as friendships. But the word friend is too broad, so people categorize their friends to several types. In her book “Necessary Losses: The Lovers, Illusions, Dependencies and Impossible Expectations That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow”, Judith Viorst divided friendships to six types. Those are convenience friends, special Interest friends, historical friends, crossroad friends, cross-generation friends and close friends. In my life, I have been friend with many people since I was little. Although I have met all six kinds of friend of Viorst, convenience friends and close friends are two important kinds of friends in my life.
Many individuals claim that college represents the best years of their lives. Socializing plays a large role in this famous saying. What exactly is socialization? It is the manner in which individuals interact with each other. Socialization offers a student the opportunity to meet new people. Each student has his or her own approach to meeting fellow students. While some find it easy to make new friends, others are not as comfortable with the process. Factors such as attending a public or catholic school, coed or single sex school, play a role in the development of one’s interactive skills. From my experience, I have noticed that I do not have an easy time conversing with women, probably because of my having attended an all boys’ high school. Many times the students with whom I quickly connect come from a similar background. Each person’s experience determines how...
Friend has always been regarded as a precious gift presented to human beings. Without friendship, life is completely meaningless. However, building up and keeping a long-last relationship with friend is not simple as there exists many elements contributing to the lifespan of friendship in which communication is included. Samter (2003) points out five mainly necessary competencies for establishing and preserving friendship, which are initiation, responsiveness, self-disclosure, emotional support and conflict management. However, due to length limitation, the essay will focus solely on three main domains: initiation, self-disclosure, and conflict management as well as role of communication and signals of an ending friendship.
The stress of college is very real, and has an impact on the lives and coping strategies of myself and those around me. However, my friends in general, myself, and a specific friend, have all taken very different approaches. The majority of my friends have become very social and friendly, and engage in behaviors that encourage gaining social support from well-known friends. One friend in particular, however, has consistently engaged in behaviors that seek to gain similar social support from a party setting. I, on the other hand, have begun to relate more closely to my family, far more than I did when I actually lived with them. These differences in social strategies can help show the differences between our well-being and social instincts, and provide suggestions about how to improve oneself through better social behaviors.
Students in the United States experience varying degrees of Multicultural Education. To my benefit, I was brought up in a learning environment that was culturally accepting and engaging. I was enrolled in the Franklin Pierce School District for my entire public education career and at Pierce College during my last two years of high school. Since the beginning of my academic career, I’ve been exposed to a learning environment filled with a rich amount of diversity among students which in turn produced well-roundedness in myself. In my experience as a FPSD student, I’ve shared experiences with fellow peers of different races, cultures, and socioeconomic standings. Pierce College boasts an even more specific type of diversity within the student
“The silver friend knows your present and the gold friend knows all of your past dirt and glories. Once in a blue moon there is someone who knows it all, someone who knows and accepts you unconditionally, someone who is there for life.” This is a quote I read once in an article by Jill McCorkle. I wrote it down and posted on my wall. McCorkle’s description of a “gold friend” describes a friendship that I have with a group of girls who mean the world to me.
Diversity and Inclusion are important to the University of Toledo’s campus because they don’t just serve to one ethnicity, they serve to many. Many different kinds of cultures come to UT to give themselves an education and to better themselves. Here at the University, they want everyone to get along with each other, since it’ll make coming to school more exciting
Those who value both their family and friendship relationships enjoy greater health and higher happiness. While no one should solely rely on friendships, these do have an impact on a person's well-being. This gives a better understanding and allows a person to thrive both physically and mentally. Just as with family relationships, having good friends can enhance the ability to cope with stress and learn how to grow as a person. College is a time for change. For most people it is a time when they find their way and become more independent. They will seek out new things, make mistakes, and learn how to manage time and energy. When life becomes stressful it will cause the need to rely on friends that are going through the same thing. When meeting back up with old friends, they may seem more mature or completely different. The way college changes friendships will be different for everyone. No two friendships are alike, so separation of going to college will affect everyone differently. Some friends will stay close so there will not be many changes and they will probably still text every day. While others will drift apart and might not even talk at all. College students will make new friends, maybe a new roommate, people in their classes, or in the cafe. There are a lot of opportunities to meet new people. Even with old friends in college, those friendships might change and meeting new people will cause one to grow