Friends Forever: How Girls and Women Forge Lasting Relationships
Book Details
PublisherRowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN / ASIN1442202009
ISBN-139781442202009
AvailabilityUsually ships in 24 hours
Sales Rank2,548,096
MarketplaceUnited States 🇺🇸
Description
Though a woman's life and the world around them may change, it's the need for friendship that remains an irreplaceable constant. From the biological and cultural origins to the varied manifestations of social connections, this book explores the deep friendship bonds forged between women. Authors Degges-White and Gainey thoughtfully illustrate the roles that contemporary social relationships play at different stages in our lives while offering insights to deeper self-understanding and for finding, establishing, and sustaining relationships at any age.
Readers will learn how to design and sustain their ideal friendscape, the dynamic and often misunderstood realm in which such bonds flourish. Degges-White and Borzumato-Gainey thoughtfully examine the biological and cultural drive towards social connections among women and provide self-reflection and self-exploration opportunities that encourage readers to better understand their own roles in relationships and the roles that others in their social landscapes play.
Readers will be given tools to enrich their lives and their relationships. At the most basic level, readers will come away with the following:
1) An understanding of the influence of biology, psychology, and society on friendship needs;
2) Sense of connection to other women who have struggled with challenges to lasting friendships;
3) Greater knowledge of the personal qualities that are crucial to lasting friendships and the level to which she offers these to her friends;
4) A new perspective on her current network of friends and a new understanding of how well these friends are meeting her emotional and instrumental needs;
5) Encouragement to try the presented strategies to transform her current network into a more effective support system; and
6) Encouragement and "road-tested" approaches for making new friends and strengthening current friendships.
The authors offer a guide to finding new friends and enhancing current relationships. Based on interviews with hundreds of women, spanning the ages of 4 to 94, Friends Forever provides readers with a contemporary perspective on female friendship. These personal stories combined with academic research present a multi-section work that combines a life stage chronology of friendship with a guide for becoming the friend you would like to have while building strong friendships along the way.
Readers will learn how to design and sustain their ideal friendscape, the dynamic and often misunderstood realm in which such bonds flourish. Degges-White and Borzumato-Gainey thoughtfully examine the biological and cultural drive towards social connections among women and provide self-reflection and self-exploration opportunities that encourage readers to better understand their own roles in relationships and the roles that others in their social landscapes play.
Readers will be given tools to enrich their lives and their relationships. At the most basic level, readers will come away with the following:
1) An understanding of the influence of biology, psychology, and society on friendship needs;
2) Sense of connection to other women who have struggled with challenges to lasting friendships;
3) Greater knowledge of the personal qualities that are crucial to lasting friendships and the level to which she offers these to her friends;
4) A new perspective on her current network of friends and a new understanding of how well these friends are meeting her emotional and instrumental needs;
5) Encouragement to try the presented strategies to transform her current network into a more effective support system; and
6) Encouragement and "road-tested" approaches for making new friends and strengthening current friendships.
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