THE ROLE OF FRIENDSHIP IN SHAPING NU STUDENTS’ MINDSETS

Abstract

Friendship is a significant part of any human’s life, which has a certain degree of impact on almost all the other relationships and aspects of life. It has many different forms and varies depending on people who are in these relationships. In other words, every person has their own understanding of what friendship is, whom they call ‘friends’, what ‘friends’ are obliged to do in their relationships, and so on. A number of Western academics have already studied the topic from a sociological perspective, and, as a result, there are important findings that help to understand what effect friendship has on the society. However, it has not been studied much in Central Asia, not to mention the absence of research on friendship as a sociological phenomenon in Kazakhstan. Therefore, this capstone project will serve as one of the first research papers conducted on friendship as a sociological phenomenon among Kazakh youth (NU students, in particular). Thus, exploring the abovementioned aspects (that were observed in Western societies) in the context of Kazakhstani culture and the NU students will be beneficial.