Js. Weinstock et La. Bond, Conceptions of conflict in close friendships and ways of knowing among young college women: A developmental framework, J SOC PERS, 17(4-5), 2000, pp. 687-696
Researchers have focused only limited attention on conflicts in adults' clo
se friendships, and rarely from a developmental perspective. This study exa
mined the relationships between young college women's epistemological persp
ectives and their conceptions of conflicts with close friends. Twenty-five
female college students, most white and middle-class, participated in indiv
idual interviews regarding their thinking about knowledge and truth, and co
nflicts with close friends. Analyses revealed three distinct patterns of co
nceptions of conflicts with close friends that appeared to vary in developm
ental complexity. Conceptions of conflicts with friends related strongly an
d positively to epistemological understandings. The implications of these f
indings for future research on conflicts in close friendships are discussed
.