Many women write to me perplexed(困惑的)about why they can’t form close friendships. They try new approaches, put themselves in all the right places, see therapists, and read relevant self-help books. They consider themselves interesting, loyal, kind and friend-worthy people. But for reasons unknown to them, they have a tough time forming intimate relationships. Many admit to not having even one close friend.
A recent study published in the
Journal of personality and Social Psychology offers some clues as to how both nature (personality) and nurture (experience) impact our friendships. Researchers at the University of Virginia and University of Toronto, Mississauga studied more than 7,000 American adults between the ages of 20 and 75 over a period of ten years, looking at the number of times these adults moved during childhood. Their study, like prior ones, showed a link between residential mobility and adult well-being: The more times participants moved as children , the poorer the quality of their adult social relationships.
But digging deeper, the researchers found that personality—specifically being introverted (内向的) or extroverted (外向的) — could either intensify of buffer (缓冲) the effect of moving to a new town or neighborhood during childhood. The negative impact of more moves during childhood was far greater for introverts compared to extroverts.
“Moving a lot makes it difficult for people to maintain long-term close relationships,” stated Dr. Shigehiro Oishi, the first author of the study, in a press release from the American Psychological Association, “This might not be a serious problem for outgoing people who can make friends quickly and easily. Less outgoing people have a harder time making new friends.”
Families often have to relocate — across town, across the country, or across the globe. Yet, in many cases, their kids and young adolescents haven’t yet built up a bank of friendships. So the conventional wisdom is to try to minimize moves for the sake of your child, whenever possible , and to move at the end of the academic year.
小题1:The passage is written mainly to
.
| A．offer advice to women on how to form intimate relationships . |
| B．explain how nature and nurture impact our friendships. |
| C．explain how moves during childhood affect children. |
| D．tell us how to help children make friends. |
小题2:Which of the following is true according to the second paragraph?
| A．People who moved less during childhood have better social relationships. |
| B．The more people moved during childhood, the more friends they have. |
| C．The more people moved during childhood, the better they adjust to society. |
| D．There is no link between residential mobility and adult well-being. |
小题3:In order for children to maintain long-term close relationships , parents
.
| A．should not relocate their homes |
| B．should relocate their homes within the town |
| C．had better move at the end of school year |
| D．had better move when their children couldn’t build up a bank of friendships |
小题4:We learn from the fourth paragraph that moves during childhood
.
| A．have a bigger impact on an introverted person compared to extroverts. |
| B．have no impact on an outgoing person |
| C．are a big problem for both introverts and extroverts |
| D．help children better adapt to new environment |
小题5:We can infer from the passage that
.
| A．our friendships are mainly affected by our nurture |
| B．we can move when children have made a lot of friends |
| C．the impact of moves will disappear when one reaches adulthood |
| D．there is some way to minimize the impact of moves during childhood on children |
