The Dark Side of Friendship

This article discusses how when we are envious of someone, we are hopeful to see them fail.

Maryanne Fisher, an associate professor in the department of psychology compares this to tabloids and celebrities.  We, as a society are waiting to see them become human, to trip up and make a mistake. It also speaks about people in our lives that we may be envy of which are called “tall poppies” such as a friend, co- worker or leader. 

Those in high positions, who stands out from the crowd in a positive and desirable way we tend to feel a sense of resentment towards them.  It’s hard for us to figure out if someone is truly a friend or a user. So, it’s up to you to figure out if a genuine friend is indeed genuine.  

My Question to you is:

Why do you think people envy others success?

What Are Good Girlfriends Good For? The Talking Cure Revisited

The article was about how beneficial it is to grow up with a sibling or having a special person to talk to can really help relieve stress and keep your body healthier. 

Most people don't realize that even useless chit chat can be considered "strong medicine." For men, this talk can be about weather, sports, or cars while for women it can be about something as unimportant as a recipe, shopping, and people at work. Just being able to engage someone face-to-face relieves stress. Human interaction is crucial to our mental health. Although men and women speak and act differently, the built-in social support of having a sibling is equally important.

Question: Do you agree that having a sibling or best friend to talk to about your troubles helps to relieve stress and anxiety and why?

Can Men and Women Be Friends?

The article entitled "Can Men and Women Be Friends?" explains how a male-female relationship can be difficult. The author Camille Chatterjee describes that although it is hard to form this type of relationship, they can be very rewarding. 

Some challenges one can face are "jealousy plagues many rational people when a significant other befriends someone of the opposite sex." Other challenges are, "defining the friendship, dealing with sexual attraction, seeing each other as equals, facing people's responses to the relationship, and meeting in the first place." You must overcome all of these challenges before you can have a true cross-sex friendship. 

Male-female friendships are necessary because both sexes must learn to communicate and understand the other. This type of friendship is also necessary because men confide in women things they normally wouldn't in their male friends, and women look for insight on how men really think. Overall, Chatterjee comes to the conclusion that men and women can in fact be friends, but there are many challenges you must overcome before you can have a cross-sex friendship.

Question: What do you think? Can men and women truly be equal friends? Why or why not?

Men and Women Just Being Friends

It is thought for it to be impossible just for men and women just to be friends. It's found that from research, it is hard to have such a relationship because of the possible attraction to one another. 

The boundaries between two people of the different sexes are sometimes minunderstood and can ruin a relationship. Men have different impluse controls than woman. It's thought that just because a man finds a woman beautiful doesn't mean they necessarly want to be with them. However, the famous saying for this type of situation is "Familiarity leads to intimacy." The relationship between two people may change over time, but it is rare. People have troube accepting this but it's just become part of life for good friends to fall for each other.

Question: Do you think that a man and a woman who are both heterosexual can just be friends? or do you think that if a man and woman are friends, that they will become "more than friends," over time?

How to Win Friends; The Sad Truth...

Brieft Summary: Kids tend to become best friends with other kids who are similar to themselves. A team of scientists studied 5th and 6th graders for about a year and came to the conclusion that the kids that made and kept best friends over the whole year were "similar others." 

At the same time, kids who tend to become friends with someone of another racial background are more open to world wide issues involving that race, as opposed to those who dont. Finally, kids only being able to create relationships with people who are like them is an unconcious bias that might also close our minds to pople from other groups. Instead we should try to encourage ourselves and others to be open to people who are unique and different from you. 

Question: From your own experice, would you agree that people who are best friends are alot like one another? Also, do you have a friend of another race, if so, are you more open to world wide issues involving that race?

Can Men and Women be Friends?

Men and women have had a strained relationship all throughout history.  It is a common belief that men and women can only have romantic relationships. 

Relationship experts and psychologists disagree.  They say that this is an old train of thought back when men and women weren't considered equal.  Today is a new age, they say that men and women can have friendly relationships but it takes work.  What do you think? 

Can men and women truly be good friends, and why or why not?

Mind Reading

Most people are better at reading there friends. But on average we can read friends with in 35% accuracy.

Do you think this statistic is right, that you can mind read what your friends are feeling almost 1/3 of the time. Why?