Throughout J’s lifetime experience of making friends, we can see the constant formation and dissolution of friendships. Kandel(1978) suggests that the processes involved in the formation and dissolution of friendships can be explained using the concept of friendship homophily. Friendship homophily results from the mechanism of selection and socialization, as shown in the diagram below.
At first, similarity results in association through the process of selection, or assortative pairing. Association then results in more similarity through socialization, where individuals who associate with each other influence each other. We can see these processes going on in J’s account of her experiences. When she meets a person for the first time, she figures out whether this person has similarities with her through first impression and a little bit of conversation. Major differences in behaviors or attitudes result in conflict or dissolution of friendship. If the relationship is stable enough, J and her friends develop even more similarities by sharing similar experiences and forming similar attitudes and values.
The process of socialization is more prominent during her high school years, mainly due to two reasons. First, her school consisted of students who had a high degree of homogeneity. Students in the foreign language high school J went to had relatively high academic achievement, especially in learning languages, and came from families of similar income level. Second, living in a dormitory guaranteed more time to spend with her friends, thus more time to build similarities.
Even though J is quite homophily, she does not seem to look for similar people consciously. Rather, after getting acquainted with people, she just feels more comfortable to talk to some people than others. Those are usually the people who have similarities with her. This corresponds to the interview results, where many respondents said that they do not consciously look for certain characteristics in others.
Also, as she got older, there was less possibility that she would make good friends just by chance, and more possibility that she would make her own opportunities. When she was in elementary school or middle school, she made friends with those sitting next to her in class or those who lived close to her. As she got older, her scope of acquaintances was not restricted to her immediate surroundings anymore. Thus, there was more room for her choice, more room to search for people who have more things in common and can maintain long term relationship with her.
Works Cited:
Kandel, D. B. (1978). Homophily, Selection, and Socialization in Adolescent Friendships. American Journal of Sociology, 84(2), 427-436.