Seven Types of Friendship - Essay Example

            Until asked to classify the types of friends I had, I never really gave the subject much thought.  However, research has illustrated that plenty of other people has.  Depending on who you talk with, there are three, five, seven, and even ten different types of friends.  Perhaps the best way to classify friends is just to examine your own life to see how you think of the people you know.  By thinking about each individual you usually spend the day with, you can begin to get a pretty good impression of the way you classify the people you know.  Examining my own life, it is easiest for me to classify my friends into three basic groups – professional friends, social friends, and close friends.

            Professional friends are those individuals who I interact with either at work or at school but don’t usually see outside of these environments.  “At the beginning of the relationship, most of the conversations are about topics of mutual interest in specific professions, and then it can gradually take a more personal turn” (Ghosh, 2008).  While we talk about things happening in other areas of our lives during lunch breaks or study sessions, these friends are pretty much limited to just these settings.  Because I don’t usually see them in a social setting, I usually only think of them in terms of the activities we do together – work or study.  We may gather for occasional social events, like class parties or office picnics, but these are very rare occasions and almost everyone seems slightly uncomfortable with the unfamiliar setting.

            Some of these people, though, begin to show up at the same parties and other social events that I attend.  As we start to talk a little more and keep up on other mutual activities, these people begin to cross into what I would call my social friends.  Guo (2007) describes these as Type 3 friends.  “These are people whom you know fairly well but would not be interested in having lunch or dinner with them alone and chatting one-on-one” (Guo, 2007).  Because they are more involved in my life and because we share many similar interests, I consider these friends closer, but I am usually not comfortable just sharing anything with them.  Jan Yager, the author of When Friendship Hurts (2002), indicates that the reason we are hesitant to make social friends close friends is because of the difficulty we have in distinguishing between those individuals who will hurt us and those who will turn out to be a positive influence in our lives. 

            Like most people, I only have two friends who I would consider close friends.  These are the people I would share just about any secret with