謝謝！I was wondering about the difference between 想 and 覺得。To me they mean "think" and "feel" respectively, which in English is interchangeable in contexts like this. Are there specific occasions/reasons to use one over the other?

I think it's a difficult topic.

"think" can be translated to "想", "覺得", "認為", etc.

“想” is usually used to indicate you believe or speculate something to be true. In this case, it’s almost interchangeable with “覺得”.

But when expressing your judgement, we usually use "覺得" or words that are similar to "覺得".
compare：
(1) 我想（覺得）日文應該很難學。(speculation)=> This sentence indicates that you haven’t started learning Japanese, but you suppose it’s difficult to learn.
​我覺得日文很難學。( judgement) => You have learned some Japanese, and to you, it's difficult.

(2) 我想(覺得)鋼管舞應該看起來會很好玩。(speculation)> You have never watched pole dancing, but you suppose that it looks fun.
我覺得鋼管舞看起來很好玩。( judgement) => You have watched pole dancing, and you think it looks fun.

Besides, both of them can be used to give advice.
我想（覺得）你應該去念大學。 => I think you should go to university. (giving advice)

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Take sentences from your entries as an example:
(1) 我想我的朋友會說我很善良。=> perfect use of “我想”.

(2) 我也想他們會説我很喜歡動物和吃東西。=> if you put “也” before “想”，“想” will mean “miss”, “want to/hope”, so you shouldn’t use “也想” here. You can say “我想他们也會…” / “我覺得他們也會..” / “我也覺得他們會...”
ex: 我想玩。我也想吃。 I want to play. I also want to eat.
我也想他们。 I also miss them. / I miss them too.
(3）如果我只可以吃一個菜，我想我要吃咖喱雞或牛肉麵。 => perfect use of “我想”。

Hope I made it clear for you.

reference: https://www.fluentu.com/blog/chinese/chinese-newbie-tips-think/

Thank you! Your examples made a lot of sense and were very clear and easy to follow.