47-2 The Developmental Process of College Female Students' Intimate Friendships in Cyberspace
The research explored the developmental process of college female students' intimate friendships to understand how they make friends in cyberspace. After being unfamiliar to each other in the beginning, a variety of issues emerged, such as concern, support, companionship, intimacy, sharing of feelings and ideas, and understanding and trusting each other as the relationship developed in cyberspace. We explored the factors that either promote or obstruct the intimate friendship developmental process, and what this experience means to college female students. The research interviewed 5 college female students in depth. Through hermeneutic phenomenology analysis, we explored how intimate relationships changed during the process. We found that there are five periods that make up the developmental process of college female students' online intimate friendships: ＂Initial Communication,＂ ＂Self-Disclosure,＂ ＂Affective Involvement,＂ ＂Relationship Testing,＂ and ＂Relationship Integration.＂ There were also factors that promoted or obstructed the development of intimate friendships in each period. Additionally, we summed up four topics to understand the meaning that emerges from college female students' online intimate friendships: ＂exploration of self in intimate friendships,＂ ＂adjusting and shifting relationships of family and friends in real life,＂ ＂renewing impressions of online friendships,＂ and ＂enriching interpersonal and daily experiences.＂ Finally, according to the research results, some suggestions about interpersonal relationships in cyberspace, counseling practice, and future related research were discussed.
Keywords
college female student ； friendship ； intimate friendship online
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