When you are young, you start to mimic things that you see other people doing, so you can be more like them. This is one of the early stages of friendship development. It is where you start to want to be more like someone you look up to.
The second stage is one of the hardest to some people, but the easiest to others. Communication. Friendships cannot be built, or developed without this crucial thing. Just saying hi to someone in the hall way as you pass by is considered friendship development. When you say hi, hey, or hello to a person, that is a sign that you know who they are and that you care. Starting a friendship can be as easy as that.
Another way to start a friendship through communication is finding something you like about someone and complement it. Like tell them that you love their shoes, and ask them where they got them. This is a great conversation started among girls. The other person will probably go on about where they go them. You could tell them that you love that store and you should go shopping together sometime, then you give them your number. Friendship development can be as easy as that.
A good way it can be started at school, is ask someone you don’t usually talk to to sit with you at lunch. Be sure to include them in the conversation, and ask them about their opinion on the subject you are talking about. If it turns out that you really like this person, you could ask them to sit with you the next day also.
Friendship is key to being happy and living longer, believe it or not. Because with friends, you are more likely to try new things and do things together with them that you would not do alone. Like when ever me and a friend hang out, we tend to go walking about two miles to help us keep in shape. When there is someone else there with you to talk, it seems to make everything much more interesting, and enjoyable.
Another type of friendship development would be inclusion. Keep the person you would like to be friends with included in things that you do. When that person feels included they usually hang around more. After you include the person you want to be friends with more, they get a since of belonging. And when you feel like you belong, people tend to stay put. We are habit forming creatures, so that makes us way more predictable.
Once the person feels like they belong in the group, you practically have a friend for life. But, after your friend is secure, that does not mean you stop going through all these steps. If you want the friend to feel like the belong all the time, you must constantly continue the things that you did to win them so you are able to keep them.
So, no matter if you have one friend or a jillion, you have been through the stages for friendship development. After you develop a great friendship, you will have someone who will stick with you through thick and thin. And that can be really comforting at times.