Introduction xxiWhat specific benefits can friendship confer, and how do we maintain friendships
once they have formed? These are the guiding questions of Part IV. Holt- Lunstad
explores the behavioral and biological pathways through which friendship’s salutary
effects on morbidity and mortality might operate. King’s chapter outlines the mutu-
ally interacting influence of friendship and mental health; he presents data linking
the maintenance of one’s best friendships to psychiatric diagnoses and the ways in
which particular symptom clusters pose potential risks to destabilizing friendships
and the critical social support networks that moderate successful adaptation to life
stress. As voluntary relationships, friendships are vulnerable to dissolution; Oswald
describes how supportiveness, positivity, openness, and interaction as well as char-
acteristics of the friendship itself contribute to its longevity.
In the epilogue of the book, Perlman deftly summarizes the important points
and overarching themes from the chapters. Moreover, in an innovative approach,
Perlman critically evaluates the contributions of the volume by glancing back at the
history of the field, providing data on the present scholarship on friendship, and
recommending future directions that are necessary to move the field forward.
This volume could be used, as a primary or secondary source, in advanced under-
graduate and graduate seminars in a variety of fields, including but not limited to
psychology, counseling, social work, communication studies, family studies, mar-
riage and family therapy, nursing, and others. It is also hoped that the book will
serve as a resource for scholars in any of the above- mentioned fields.
We are grateful to Abby Gross, Suzanne Walker, and Courtney McCarroll at
Oxford University Press for their help in shaping the contents and organization of
the book and bringing the volume to press. We also wish to thank our respective
departments at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (Hojjat) and Stony
Brook University (Moyer) for providing us with the necessary time and resources
to devote to the editing of this volume.
The ideas brought by the contributors to the volume were thoughtful, insightful,
and exciting, and were generated through their deep scholarship and expertise in
their respective areas. We hope that these ideas inspire other scholars into further
reflection and inquiry into one of our most fundamental and potentially edifying
relationships.