Citation

Fischer CS. Soc. Netw. 1982; 3(4): 287-306.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1982, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0378-8733(82)90004-1

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Although the concept 'friend' is critical to both theoretical and empirical studies of social relations, it is a very ambiguous term. Most researchers seem to take its meaning for granted. This paper reports an inductive study designed to find out what aspects of real relations are correlated with applications of the label 'friend'. In a cross-sectional survey of 1050 adults living in northern California in 1977, we obtained the names and descriptions of 19417 associates. Of these, 59% were labelled 'friends'. Several regression analyses suggest that this label is likely to be applied: to an overwhelming majority of non-relatives in a largely unsystematic way; to associates lacking other, specialized role-relations; to people of the same age: to people known a long time; and to people with whom respondents had primarily sociable, rather than intimate or material, involvements.