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Definition
Friendship is a voluntary interdependence between two individuals that includes the experience and satisfaction of various provisions (intimacy, support, self-validation) to varying degrees.
Description
Friendship is a cherished personal relationship that plays a significant role in the lives of individuals. In posing the question “What makes people happy?” to a layperson or scholar, most would likely include friendships on the top of their lists. Consistent with this idea, friendship has been recognized and studied as a correlate of happiness since the seminal work of Watson (1930). Since then, hundreds of empirical studies have investigated the associations of various aspects of friendship (e.g., number, intimacy) with happiness and multiple reviews of the literature have been published (e.g., Argyle, 2001; Demir & Weitekamp, 2007; Diener & Ryan, 2009).
In the most recent review of the empirical studies on friendship and happiness, Demir,...
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References
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Demir, M., Özen, A., Procsal, A.D. (2014). Friendship and Happiness. In: Michalos, A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_3895
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