The Psychology of Friendship

Mahzad Hojjat is a social psychologist and Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Dr. Hojjat has taught, researched, and written about close relationships for the last 20 years. Her research focuses on a variety of topics including resilience, satisfaction, betrayal, and forgiveness in friendships and romantic relationships.

Anne Moyer has been a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Stony Brook University since 2001. Her research interests include psychosocial issues surrounding cancer and cancer risk, medical decision making, research synthesis and meta-analysis and the psychology of research participation. She and co-editor, Mahzad Hojjat, became friends and collaborators while in graduate school together.

Rebecca G. Adams
Department of Gerontology
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Greensboro, NC

Christopher R. Agnew
Department of Psychological Sciences
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN

Elizabeth Barlow Lozano
Department of Psychology
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
North Dartmouth, MA

Ezgi Besikci
Department of Psychological Sciences
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN

Rosemary Blieszner
Department of Human Development
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA

Susan D. Boon
Department of Psychology
University of Calgary
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Tonya M. Buchanan
Department of Psychology
Central Washington University
Ellensburg, WA

Eddie M. Clark
Department of Psychology
Saint Louis University
St. Louis, MO

Helena D. Cooper-Thomas
School of Psychology
The University of Auckland
Auckland, New Zealand

Helen J. Day
Department of Psychology
University of Maine
Orono, ME

Cynthia A. Erdley
Department of Psychology
University of Maine
Orono, ME

Priscilla Fernandez
Department of Psychology
Saint Louis University
St. Louis, MO

Julia Hahmann
Department of Gerontology
University of Vechta
Vechta, Germany

Abigail L. Harris
Department of Psychology
Saint Louis University
St. Louis, MO

Michelle Hasan
Department of Psychology
Saint Louis University
St. Louis, MO

David R. Hibbard
Department of Psychology
California State University, Chico
Chico, CA

Julianne Holt-Lunstad
Department of Psychology
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT

Mahzad Hojjat
Department of Psychology
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
North Dartmouth, MA

Michelle M. Hospital
School of Integrated Science and Humanity
Florida International University
Miami, FL

Alan R. King
Department of Psychology
University of North Dakota
Grand Forks, ND

Andrew M. Ledbetter
Department of Communication Studies
Texas Christian University
Fort Worth, TX

E. Paige Lloyd
Department of Psychology
Miami University
Oxford, OH

Laura Gail Lunsford
Department of Psychology
University of Arizona South
Sierra Vista, AZ

Allen R. McConnell
Department of Psychology
Miami University
Oxford, OH

William M. Monsour, III
Department of Communication Arts and Sciences
Metropolitan State University of Denver
Denver, CO

Rachel L. Morrison
Management Department
Auckland University of Technology
Auckland, New Zealand

Anne Moyer
Department of Psychology
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY

Marcus Mund
Institut für Psychologie
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
Jena, Germany

Franz J. Neyer
Institut für Psychologie
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
Jena, Germany

Debra L. Oswald
Department of Psychology
Marquette University
Milwaukee, WI

Daniel Perlman
Department of Human Development and Family Studies
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Greensboro, NC

William K. Rawlins
Department of Communication Studies
Ohio University
Athens, OH

Suzanna M. Rose
Department of Psychology
Florida International University
Miami, FL

Tiffany D. Russell
Department of Psychology
University of North Dakota
Grand Forks, ND

Laura E. VanderDrift
Department of Psychology
Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY

Amy C. Veith
Department of Psychology
University of North Dakota
Grand Forks, ND

Katheryn B. Votaw
Department of Psychology
Saint Louis University
St. Louis, MO

Gail E. Walton
Department of Child Development
California State University, Chico
Chico, CA

Cornelia Wrzus
Psychological Institute
Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz
Mainz, Germany

Julia Zimmermann
Institut für Psychologie,
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena,
Jena, Germany;
Institut für Psychologie,
FernUniversität in Hagen,
Hagen, Germany

"Research on close relationship really has come into its own in the last two decades. But among behavioral scientists, it sometimes seems that love (and related constructs like jealousy and hate) get all the attention. Yet, friendships are what sustain our psyches and influence our physical wellbeing. Psychologists Mahzad Hojjat and Anne Moyer have collected together the leading thinkers whose research programs focus on friendship. Representing perspectives from biological to social-cultural, childhood to the elderly, these investigators have produced some of the clearest writing in this area, and the collection itself will be exceedingly valuable both to scholars and students." -- Peter Salovey, President of the University and Chris Argyris Professor of Psychology Yale University

"This volume elegantly brings the research community up to date on the extremely important topic of friendship, which is so central to human experience. An initially small body of existing research has recently begun to expand, with attention to widely diverse friendship types and contexts . This book does a wonderful job of pulling together this literature with a series of chapters with scholarly reviews each focusing on one of these domains, and consistently addressing what we mean by friendship and how it operates and interacts with the rest of human experience. Anyone doing research on friendship needs this book." -- Arthur Aron, Research Professor, Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University; Visiting Scholar, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley

"Hojjat and Moyer creatively and thoroughly present a volume on friendship that contributes to the field. With an eye on topics that are less mainstream but of relevance and importance, the authors create a book that adds to our larger understanding of friendship across the developmental stages, and notably stimulate our thinking about the many layers of friendship that exist in our lives. Students, researchers, clinicians, and others will appreciate the diverse coverage in the book and the accessibility of the information within its pages." -- PsycCRITIQUES