Friendship and Psychological Well-Being

“Some people go to priests. Others to poetry.I to my friends”. This quotation by Virginia Woolfe would be the perfect way to start this study. “A faithful friend is the medicine of life.” Again a quotation but this time by Apocrypha is apt to define the purpose of this study. Everyone has friends – sometimes only one, while at other times, many. But what is the importance of friendship or friends to a person? How does having a friend help us in our time of need, problems and sorrow? Is it possible that friendship relaxes us or reduces our tensions? Does friendship have effect on our well-being and especially psychological well-being? The aim of the current study was to find out what role does Friendship play in Psychological Well-Being. The study was carried on the sample of 200 individuals all aged from 17 to 35. Dimensions of Friendship Scale (SunandaChandna and N.K. Chadha, 1986) and Psychological Well-Being Scale (Bhogle and Jai Prakesh, 1995) were used for the purpose of measurement. Results indicated that there is a significant positive correlation (r = .723) at 0.01 level of significance between friendship and psychological well-being.