Researchers have focused only limited attention on conflicts in adults' close friendships, and rarely from a developmental perspective. This study examined the relationships between young college women's epistemological perspectives and their conceptions of conflicts with close friends. Twenty-five female college students, most white and middle-class, participated in individual interviews regarding their thinking about knowledge and truth, and conflicts with close friends. Analyses revealed three distinct patterns of conceptions of conflicts with close friends that appeared to vary in developmental complexity. Conceptions of conflicts with friends related strongly and positively to epistemological understandings. The implications of these findings for future research on conflicts in close friendships are discussed.
Baxter Magolda, M. B. (1992). Knowing and reasoning in college: Gender-related patterns in students' intellectual development. San FrancisCO:Jossey-Bass.
2.
Belenky, M. F. , Bond, L. A., & Weinstock, J. S. (1997). A tradition that has no name: Nurturing the development of people, families, and communities. New York: Basic Books.
3.
Belenky, M. F. , Clinchy, B. M., Goldberger, N. R., & Tarule, J. M. (1997). Women's ways of knowing: The development of self, voice, and mind (10th anniversary edition). New York: Basic Books. (Original work published 1986)
4.
Berndt, T. J. , & Perry, T. B. (1986). Children's perceptions of friendships as supportive relationships. Developmental Psychology, 22, 640-648.
5.
Buchanan, W. (1983). Nominal and ordinal bivariate statistics: The practitioner's view. In H. B. Asher, H. F. Weisberg, J. H. Kessel, & W. P. Shively (Eds.), Theory-building and data analysis in social sciences (pp. 189-210). Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.
6.
Clinchy, B. M. (1993). Ways of knowing and ways of being: Epistemological and moral development in undergraduate women. In A. Garrod (Ed.), Approaches to moral development: New research and emerging themes (pp. 180-200). New York: Teachers College Press.
7.
Hartup, W. W. (1992). Conflict and friendship relations. In C. U. Shantz & W. W. Hartup (Eds.), Conflict in child and adolescent development (pp. 186-215). New York: Cambridge University Press.
8.
Hartup, W. W. , French, D. C., Laursen, B., Johnston, M. K., & Ogawa, J. R. (1993). Conflict and friendship relations in middle childhood: Behavior in a closed-field situation. Child Development, 64, 445-454.
9.
Hartup, W. W. , Laursen, B., Stewart, M. I., & Eastenson, A. (1988). Conflict and the friendship relations of young children. Child Development, 59, 1590-1600.
10.
Laursen, B. (1993). Conflict management among close peers. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & B. Laursen (Ed.), New directions for child development, Vol. 6O. Close friendships in adolescence (pp. 39-54). San FrancisCO:Jossey-Bass.
11.
Laursen, B. , & Koplas, A. L. (1995). What's important about important conflicts? Adolescents' perceptions of daily disagreements. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 41, 536-553.
12.
Mishler, E. G. (1986). Research interviewing: Context and narrative. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
13.
Packer, M. J. , & Addison, R. B. (Eds.). (1989). Entering the circle: Hermeneutic investigation in psychology. Albany: State University of New York.
14.
Perry, W. G., Jr. (1999). Forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college years: A scheme. San FrancisCO:Jossey-Bass. (Original work published 1970)
15.
Rawlins, W. K. (1994). Being there and growing apart: Sustaining friendships during adulthood. In D. J. Canary & L. Stafford (Eds.), Communication and relational maintenance (pp. 275-294). San Diego: Academic Press.
16.
Selman, R. L. (1980). The growth of interpersonal understanding: Developmental and clinical analyses. New York: Academic Press.
17.
Selman, R. L. (1981). The child as friendship philosopher. In S. R. Asher & J. M. Gottman (Eds.), The development of children's friendships (pp. 242-272). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
18.
Shantz, C. U. (1987). Conflicts between children. Child Development, 58, 283-305.
19.
Sims, M. , Hutchins, T., & Taylor, M. (1997). Conflict as social interaction: Building relationship skills in child care settings. Child & Youth Care Forum, 26, 247-260.
20.
Weinstock, J. S. (1989). Epistemological expressions among college women in two contexts: Conflicts with friends and authorities. Unpublished master's thesis, University of Vermont, Burlington.
21.
Weinstock, J. S. (1993). College women's conceptions of friendship, conceptions of conflicts with friends, and epistemological perspectives. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Vermont, Burlington.
22.
Winstead, B. A. , Derlega, V. J., & Rose, S. (1997). Gender and close relationships. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
