Abstract
The purposes of the present article were to synthesize findings about friendship and friendship motivation, and to develop a motivational model of the process by which individuals form and maintain close friendships. A review of research on the relations between friendship and adjustment suggested that individual differences in whether or not people form and maintain close friendships have not yet been analyzed. Next, constructs of friendship motivation were examined based on several theoretical viewpoints, including achievement goal theory, social goal research, social cognitive theory, and self-determination theory. Finally, a model was proposed according to which friendship motivation influences the formation and maintenance of close friendships, which, in tern, support adjustment. This model suggests that research about friendship motivation should focus on individual differences in the formation and maintenance of close friendships.
