Latest Friendship Stories

Many parents of preschoolers struggle with their children's fears of real and imaginary creatures. A new study offers some ideas on how they can better manage their children's worries.The study, which was carried out by researchers at the University of California, Davis, appears in the November/December 2009 issue of the journal Child Development.Researchers studied about 50 4-, 5-, and 7-year-olds in an effort to identify coping strategies that can be carried out by children. The children...

ALLENTOWN, Pa., Sept. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Robert M. Gordon, Ph.D., a psychologist-researcher and psychoanalyst, developed a comprehensive model of love relations that he will be using on the new Internet matchmaking site, RewardingLove.com (TM) (http://www.RewardingLove.com). His model is based on research from evolutionary psychology, personality temperaments and traits, early attachment, family dynamics, cultural and societal beliefs, and current context (Gordon, 2006, 2008). Figure:...

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- My Stone Company, creators of The Friendship Stone, and Big Brothers Big Sisters today announced a cause-marketing strategic partnership. The agreement aims to promote The Power of Two Friendship Stones' support of Big Brothers Big Sisters, the nation's largest donor-supported volunteer mentoring network for youth. My Stone Company will donate 20% of net sales from all purchases of the Power of Two stone packages bought on the joint...

Emotional suppression may cost college freshmen friendships, a co-author of a University of Oregon at Eugene study said Saturday. Hiding your emotions is something that is very common but it's something that often is not the right thing to do, Sanjay Srivastava said. We're not saying never ever do this, but doing it may have negative effects in certain contexts, such as in transitioning into college. Srivastava, a professor of psychology, said in a press release from the university that...

Some male and female baboons engage in strictly platonic, sexless relationships.  Male companionship comes in handy to females and their infants, as other baboons tend to pester less when female company is shared by their favorite male buddy.  However, it remains a mind-boggling topic for scientists to understand why the males opt to be platonic friends.  BBC News gave account to the study that explores baboon relationships, which was published in Behavioral Sociobiology and...

A new theory on friendships challenges the traditional explanation for human friendship that focused on wealth, popularity or similarity, U.S. researchers say. University of Pennsylvania psychologists Peter DeScioli and Robert Kurzban say people -- and nations -- call on friends for help in a variety of disputes, ranging from trivial arguments to violent fights, the researchers say. The Alliance Hypothesis for Human Friendship suggests that people have specialized decision processes that...

 University of Pennsylvania psychologists studying the cognitive mechanisms behind human friendship have determined that how you rank your best friends is closely related to how you think your friends rank you. The results are consistent with a new theory called the Alliance Hypothesis for Human Friendship, distinct from traditional explanations for human friendship that focused on wealth, popularity or similarity.The study, performed by Penn cognitive psychologists Peter DeScioli and...

U.S. college students are more likely to develop interracial friends if they are paired with a dormitory roommate of a different race, researchers said. Study co-author Claudia Buchmann of Ohio State University said the study -- which took place at a highly selective private university -- found white students generally increased their number of interracial friendships during their first year of college, while black students showed a slight decrease. Overall, the results, published in the...

Proteges can successfully gain a combination of emotional benefits, new skills development and healthy experiences with adult companionshipA study of a Big Brothers Big Sisters of America formal mentoring program, which matched adolescent girls with women mentors, revealed that strong emotional support and improvement in girls psychosocial functioning from these relationships was a dominant theme coupled with the development of new skills and confidence through collaborations.Unlike previous...

Across the social networking sites, online friendships range from close relationships with strong ties to looser affiliations -- but both types of friendships are usefulA University of Kansas professor is researching details of relationships forged on social networking sites and determining their significance, depth and potential.Nancy Baym, associate professor of communication studies, became interested early on in how the Internet shapes interpersonal communication and of late has focused...