ABSTRACT
Social psychologists often speak of 'interpersonal attraction' rather than 'friendship'. This is not merely another use of jargon, but an accurate description of the central theoretical and empirical interests of social psychologists. Nor have social psychologists examined or tested the wisdom of writers, including poets and novelists, on the nature of friendship and love, that has accumulated over the ages. When social psychologists investigated what distinguishes friends from non-friends, it was found that friends are more alike in certain respects than non-friends. The complex inter-relationship between propinquity and similarity factors is exemplified when we try to assess the impact of social class factors on friendship choices. If teachers want to promote friendships among children of different organizational groups or among subgroups of friends with similar abilities and social background, then competition among such children must be avoided and co-operation in pursuit of superordinate goals must be actively stimulated.
