Research about friendship

September 17, 2009 2:09 PM

Looking for research about (1) how people become friends (2) how you can encourage friendship between people and (3) how you can determine people's personality types, interests and attitudes using personality tests.

I've been randomly using Google Scholar and CiteULike, but I'm having trouble coming up with good search keywords.

posted by Foci for Analysis to Human Relations (6 answers total)

I've found the Myers-Briggs personality tests to be helpful in understanding my family and friends better. It's a pretty common tests that people take either in college or the workplace so many people already know their type. This site has a lot of descriptions of the types that you can browse through. These are the hits from Google Scholar but I can't point to any particular research as being better than others.

What keywords have you been using?
posted by Mouse Army at 2:16 PM on September 17, 2009

I assume from your username that you're familiar with Feld's Foci Theory.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 2:19 PM on September 17, 2009

Best answer: Friendship References
Clark MS, Mills JR. 1982. Communal and exchange relationships. In Review of Personality and Social Psychology, Wheeler L (ed). Sage: Beverly Hills, CA.

Fine GA. 1986. Friendships in the workplace. In Friendship and Social Interaction, Derlega VJ,
Winstead BA (eds). Springer-Verlag:NewYork; 85–206.

Hays RB. 1985. A longitudinal study of friendship development. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 48: 909-924.

Pahl R. 2000. On Friendship. Blackwell: Malden, MA.

Silver A. 1990. Friendship in commercial society: eighteenth-century social theory and modern sociology. American Journal of Sociology 95: 1474-1504.

Personality References
Digman JM. 1990. Personality structure: emergence of the five-factor model. Annual Review of Psychology 41: 417-440

Digman JM. 1997. Higher-order factors of the big five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 73(6): 1246-1256

Kenrick D, Funder DC. 1988. Lessons from the person-situation debate. American Psychologist 43: 23-34
posted by bove at 2:31 PM on September 17, 2009 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Mouse Army, I've been using keywords such as friendship formation, friendship factors, making friends, etc. Google Scholar sucks pretty bad IMHO, so I get lots of irrelevant hits.

If only I had a penguin..., heh, I'm not familiar with Feld. Thanks for the suggestion!

kathrineg, I've skimmed through Wikipedia's page on psychometrics and while it's quite informative it doesn't have the details that I'm looking for.

bove, wow, thanks! Now we're talking! Any ideas where I can find the original articles online? I always seem to hit a paywall...
posted by Foci for Analysis at 3:29 PM on September 17, 2009

Aristotle's ethics(s) contain the best information around the concept of friendship I have ever seen. There's three, by the way. Friends with benefits (not the 2009 definition, that would be #2), friends to party with, and friends whose virtue is so overpowering that being around them compels you to be a better human being.

Not too many #3's, unfortunately.
posted by bukvich at 3:48 PM on September 17, 2009

For almost all articles like the ones I cited above you will need access to an academic library (or be searching somewhere through one). However, virtually any library should be able to get copies for you if you request them. If you still have trouble I could probably get some and send them to you via email.
posted by bove at 6:52 PM on September 17, 2009