The psycho-educational value of friendship amongst adolescents

Abstract

The focus of this dissertation revolved around the phenomenon of friendship, specifically amongst adolescents. Friendship is a universal phenomenon, that occurs in every race, culture and religion. Within friendship there are some universal aspects that were investigated. The research attempted to understand the phenomenon of friendship amongst the developmental phase of the adolescent. Furthermore, the effect of friendship on the adolescent’s general psychological functioning had been investigated. The research came to the conclusion that friendship does have a positive influence on an adolescent’s general psychological functioning but that some psychological factors, such as communication skills, social skills and self confidence need to be developed to a certain extent in order for friendship to have a positive influence on the adolescent’s psychological functioning. If these psychological factors are however not in place, friendship may to a certain extent highlight an adolescent’s weaknesses and reinforce his/her social inadequacy, inferiority, lack of self confidence and negative self talk.