LAB 026 - What About Your Friends?
Homework
Watch Insecure on HBO - Were you unfamiliar with Titi’s references of Issa and Molly? If so, you can binge these besties all the way through season 4.
Ooh, on the TLC tip! The title of Lab 026 is a hat tip to TLC’s hit song.
The dictionary can’t tell you what friendship is and Whodini taught us that. Friends! How many of us have them?!
Read More
Our guest expert, Dr. Franco, shared some great resources if you want to read more about the science of friendship. Check out the links below:
What defines a friend? Basically you trust them more than a stranger, and it goes both ways. “The Psychology of Friendship” includes traits of friendship.
What about romance? One of the best predictors of whether people stay together is whether they feel like they’re friends.
Now we gotta fight. Use “integrative response” to get through conflict, which is actually related to having a deeper sense of friendship.
Feel my pain. Learn how to engage in healthy conflict by reading Dr. Franco’s summary of the best approaches.
Cue Janet Jackson’s I Get So Lonely. When you’re lonely and you interact with other people, you’re more likely to assume they’re rejecting you. Tricky, tricky brain.
Humans - We are social, and we’re empathic too. Check out The NY Times overview of this studies showing you just how empathic we are.
Guest Expert
Dr. Marisa G. Franco, Psychologist, is a friendship expert. She was recently featured in the podcast, Therapy for Black Girls, and in Psychology Today. Read more about her work on her website and check out her YouTube channel.
fEatured guests
This lab features the hosts of Call Your Girlfriend, Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman. They shared what works for their friendship and their newest book about it, Big Friendship.