Social Exchange Theory

Social Exchange Theory Being in a friendship with someone who may be on the needy side isn't always too easy to handle. I have been in the same situation as Laurie and Maisie. It can be hard to balance a close friendship with all the things going on in your personal life when you have a needy friend. I’ve experienced and have definitely seen friends experience the battle of having to choose to put their own things to the side to be there for that friend. I have also seen people set those boundaries, which is something I wish I did because it can have a better turn out in the friendship. Maisie is having trouble deciding what to do and she may not end the friendship because of what will happen if she does. There’s connections between her and Laura's boyfriends and the girls not being friends could make their boyfriend's relationship awkward. Plus, when you’ve been friends for a while despite problems you try to hold on to the friendship because of all the memories. That’s what it was for me, I had a friend who was ultimately my best friend. We lived in the same apartment complex, we worked at the same place, and then when we got off of work she would want to hang out and be around each other all the time. If I hung out with other people it was a problem and she would say things like, < you could have invited me= or < why do you want to hang out with them?= After we’ve been together all day and we work 4 days in a row together every week.She knew I had a boyfriend and I couldn’t spend all my time with her and it was becoming a problem. I never let her know how her neediness was affecting me and I started to distance myself. There was an argument due to a messed up situation we were in and in the argument she mentioned me distancing myself and I admitted I did and she didn’t like that. Long story short we are no longer friends, I feel like maybe if we had a conversation about it prior to the argument we could’ve still be friends but, when someone expects so much from you there's only so much you can handle.