Strangers into Friends:The Evolution of Friendship Networks Using an Individual Oriented Modeling Approach

On the basis of gaps in the research tradition of social network analysis, we formulated a research question that asked for a mathematical model that predicts the evolution of friendship networks. Here we first recall the research goals of this study and subsequently explain the main aspects of the general model and the three more specific models that were derived from it. A general overview of the main predictions of the models is followed by the results of testing the models with empirical data. Finally, we give some conclusions and ideas for future extensions of the models. ..