Friendship — Meaning, Definition, and How This Core Value Shapes Your Life
What Is Friendship as a Core Value?
Friendship values cultivated mutual trust, companionship, and shared support outside formal obligations. People high in Friendship invest time in sustaining social bonds.
Why Friendship Matters
Honoring Friendship helps you:
- buffer stress through connection,
- expand collaborative opportunities,
- enhance emotional wellbeing,
- experience belonging beyond achievement.
How Friendship Shows Up (High vs. Low Expression)
High Expression
- initiates regular reach-outs,
- remembers personal details and milestones,
- offers help without transaction ledger,
- creates spaces for shared experiences.
Low Expression
- lets relationships fade passively,
- declines social invitations routinely,
- sees networking only instrumentally,
- withholds vulnerability.
Common Challenges of High Friendship
- time trade-offs with focus work,
- emotional labor across many ties,
- difficulty pruning draining connections,
- potential avoidance of solitude growth.
Friendship in Conflict With Other Values
Friendship vs. Success
Success may demand intensive solitary focus; Friendship draws time toward relational maintenance.
Tension: concentrated achievement vs. social nourishment.
Friendship vs. Independence
Independence values self-reliance; Friendship pursues interdependence.
Tension: autonomous solitude vs. mutual support.
Examples of Friendship in Daily Life
- Scheduling recurring friend catch-ups.
- Organizing small group skill-sharing sessions.
- Sending spontaneous encouragement messages.
- Hosting communal meals.