Friendship is an important component of people’s personal and social life. Friendship is such a basic process that children begin to involve in complex social behaviors in the early part of the second year of their life and can distinguish friends from unfamiliar peers by the age of four (Hartup, 1983). Throughout life, notions of friendship and its specific functions change depending on a variety of factors such as age, gender, marital status, and work, but what remains constant across the life span is the meaning of friendship to one’s emotional health and wellbeing. (Samter 2003, p.637).
Friendship is a typically personal relationship that grounded in a concern on the part of each friend for the wellbeing of the other, for the …show more content…
Altman and Taylor came up with this theory that looks at changes in self-disclosure that correspond with relational development. They proposed an onion metaphor, the closer you get into the onion the deeper you have to go, and the more self-disclosure is being done. Taking into consideration breadth, depth and duration are the areas of self-disclosure in friendship.
Breadth refers to the number of categories of topics discussed. With the passage of time you want to explore more aspects of your friend’s life which are still unknown to you. More breadth in your relationship leads to have an enhanced friendship quality. Self-disclosure describes the moment when a pair leaves the dominion of buddy hood for the refined zone of true friendship. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" may be very fine words you say to someone who is about to become a friend. The changeover from a general contact with someone to friendship is typically categorized by an increase in both the breadth and depth of self-disclosure. In the early stages of friendship it inclines to be a slow and steady, reciprocal process. One person takes the risk of disclosing personal information and then 'tests' whether the other reciprocates." (Beverley