from Diary 2024-03-07 People who spontaneously assert allot attentions. Facebook I have quite a few friends who profess to have âI donât have many friendsâ and actually seem to have few friends. In other words, people like myself, who think that having many friends is a good thing, and people who think, âI donât need many friends, and if you want, I donât need any. People like myself who think âhaving many friends is justifiedâ and people who think âitâs okay not to have friendsâ can be friends. This is a very interesting fact.
I think it is rather subtle whether âpeople who profess to have few friendsâ think âit is okay to have few friends, or even better, not to have any.â Especially the âdonât need to have anyâ part. There is probably a difference between people who say âI donât have many friendsâ in reaction to something and people who spontaneously say âI donât have many friends,â and the latter are devoting their attentions to the number of friends they have. Since such people are interested in the number of friends they have, they think negatively about having few friends, but they are conscious that they are not good at increasing the number of friends, so they resolve this incongruity by claiming that it is good to have fewer friends. Itâs like saying âsour grapesâ when you canât get grapes.
If people who donât have many friends insist, in a sour grapes way, that itâs okay to have few friends, I feel a sense of wickedness in the process by which this argument has come to seem so civilized. As someone who thinks that âitâs better to have many friends,â I feel that you shouldnât try to increase the number of your sour grapes friends.
This exchange provides insight into peopleâs differing attitudes toward the number of friends and how they affect their social perceptions and self-perceptions. Tomoya Tachikawa and nishioâs views develop a deep social psychological argument by exploring how individualsâ views on the number of friends are formed and how they are interpreted within a social context.
A social psychological approach to the number of friends
. Tomoya Tachikawaâs statement, while expressing his own value of preferring to have many friends, suggests that people who profess to have few friends may in fact also value their friendships. This perspective indicates that the various attitudes and beliefs people have about the number of friends may in fact be complemented by the quality and depth of their friendships.
nishioâs response points out that self-reports of having few friends does not necessarily imply a belief that it is okay to have few friends. This analysis brings to mind the social psychology concept of cognitive dissonance theory. Cognitive dissonance theory refers to the psychological process by which people experience discomfort when they perceive discrepancies between their own behaviors and beliefs and attempt to change their beliefs and attitudes to resolve the discomfort.
Social influence and self-perception
. Tomoya Tachikawaâs statement about what he perceives as âwickednessâ reflects his concern about how values and expectations about the number of friends in society affect an individualâs self-perception and social standing. While society generally emphasizes the value of âmore friends is better,â the process by which the attitude of âless friends is betterâ becomes accepted demonstrates the individualâs reaction to societal values and expectations.
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