Date of Award

6-2009

Document Type

Union College Only

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Sociology

Language

English

Keywords

friends, year, freshman, friendships, changed

Abstract

This paper explores how friendships in college are typically made, why friendships are constantly changing, and why people tend to be happier with their friends by the time they reach their senior year. Senior female sorority members were given surveys and were interviewed about how their friendships differed from freshman year to senior year. Survey and interview questions explored how people met their initial friends, their happiness level with their freshman year friends compared to their friends now, whether their group of friends has changed, and their similarity to their friends now. The survey results indicate that most of the respondent’s group of friends changed from freshman year. They reveal that every person has a high happiness level with their friends now no matter what their happiness level was with their freshman year friends. Results also indicate that every respondent was at least a little similar to their friends now, and the highest percentage of people who said that most of their friends changed said that they were most similar to their friends now. These results suggest that similarity plays an important role in creating happy and fulfilling friendships.

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