Friendship and Social Structure: A Preliminary Outline of a Social Psychological Theory.

Previous investigators have failed to distinguish between attraction and friendship, and have ignored both pair relations and the structural context of most such relations in the real world. Beginning with a definition of friendship as the cooccurrence of attraction and relationships, the author then examines those factors which lead to each and then to their cooccurrence. Social structure consists of positions and their relationships. Characteristics of positions in social structure which influence friendship include acquaintance opportunity, rank and cooperative versus competitive interests. Norms associated with positions which influence attraction include norms of social desirability and norms of etiquette. Normatively governed interpositional relations are controlled by positive and negative sanctions. The probability of sanction can be anticipated by a position incumbent. Shaping in unnecessary since the incumbent already possesses information about the reinforcement schedule.