There are numerous authors currently writing on relational aggression.  For a partial list of scholarly books and articles which directly address this phenomenon, please click here.

For a brief synopsis of theoretical frameworks crucial to an understanding the phenomenon of relational aggression, please access the links below.

George Herbert Mead: Founder of the ‘symbolic interactionist’ school of social psychology,  Mead appropriated Cooley’s concept of the “Looking Glass Self” in order to explain social interaction.  In this perspective, we come to know ourselves through the ‘mirrorings’ of others.  Their responses to us act as a social mirror, reflecting attitudes and opinions;  approval or disapproval;  affirmation or rejection of our actions and beliefs.  To a greater or lesser extent, we come to live in the minds of others.  The more powerful our relationship to (psychic investment in) the individual(s) mirroring us, the more their opinions matter to us, and the more likely they are to influence our behavior.

Mind, Self, and Society: From the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist (Works of George Herbert Mead)