11.1.2 Friendship Functions
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Friendship Functions
Friendships serve many different functions in our lives. Two of the most important are that they help us to fulfill our need for companionship —chances to do fun things together and receive emotional support—and they help us achieve practical goals—friends help us deal with problems or everyday tasks (de Vries, 1996). These functions are not mutually exclusive, as many friendships facilitate both.
Communal Friendships One of the functions friendships serve is enabling us to share life events and activities with others. Compared to family and work relationships, friendship interactions are the least task oriented and tend to revolve around leisure activities such as talking or eating (Argyle & Furnham, 1982). Scholar William Rawlins (1992) describes friendships that focus primarily on sharing time and activities together as communal friendships. Communal friends try to get together as often as possible, and they provide encouragement and emotional support to one another during times of need. Importantly, because emotional support is a central aspect of communal friendship, only when both friends fulfill the expectations of support for the relationship does the friendship endure (Burleson & Samter, 1994).
Communal Friendships
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Agentic Friendships We also look to friends for help in achieving practical goals in both our personal and our professional lives. Friends help us study for exams, fix cars, set up computers, and complete professional projects. Friendships in which the parties focus primarily on helping each other achieve practical goals are known as agentic friendships (Rawlins, 1992). Agentic friends value sharing time together—but only if they’re available and have no other priorities to handle at the moment. They also aren’t interested in the emotional interdependence and mutual sharing of personal information that characterize communal friendships. They’re available when the need arises, but beyond that, they’re uncomfortable with more personal demands or responsibilities. For example, an agentic friend from work may gladly help you write up a monthly sales report, but she may feel uncomfortable if you ask her for advice about your romantic problems.
