Discuss briefly how friendships change over the lifespan

What will be an ideal response?

• The size of our friendship network decreases with age. Generally speaking, from middle age on, we begin to target our energies and put more emphasis on a smaller number of closer, more intimate friendships.
• Friends to whom we are closest over time tend to have similar thoughts, engage in similar behaviors, and often reflect a great deal of time and energy put into the relationship.
• Friends who are closer to us in age are likely to experience similar life events at similar points in their lives, increasing perceptions of similarity between same-aged friends.