Social Pyschology: Prejudice

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What is the cause of prejudice? This is one of the few questions of interests in the field of social psychology. This essay will evaluate the social psychological approach to understanding prejudice. Social psychology is a scientific form of explaining human behaviour. It was developed by Gordon Allport in 1985, social psychology focuses on social interactions that cause various behaviours. It is scientific because behaviour can be observed & therefore measured in many forms. This is an objective way of collecting data that can then be used as proof to back up series of theories. One of the main points in social psychology is that it doesn't just focus on motor activities but also on behaviour such as facial expressions which can also be observed and measured. Social psychology is interested in the emotion caused through actions presented that's affected by our thoughts. As humans we are socialised to behave the way we do even if sometimes it means to be prejudice (Hogg & Vaughan, 2011). What does it mean to be prejudice? There are many definitions of prejudice but the most simple answer is 'passing judgement and/or having negative attitude towards a certain individual or group of individuals'. A saying was once said ''Don't judge a book by its cover'' but as human beings we naturally judge people based on many factors if its hair colour, appearance to more extreme judgement such as skin colour, sex, culture ect. The problem is that we live in a world where prejudice takes place on a daily basis and its all due to social control where we are socialised to behave as the 'norm' that is created by our society. As soon as an individual steps out of the 'norm' that particular person is instantly treated and viewed differently. Due ... ... middle of paper ... ...sked but in this case, our behaviour is due to the overpowering of social control which may include every aspect I outlined above. We have many theories and data to back up certain aspects of this but do we really know the true meaning of socialisation and how it can affect us, is the big question. Works Cited Hogg, M.A., & Vaughan, G.M. (2011). Social Psychology (6th ed.). London:Prentice Hall McLeod, S. A. (2008). Prejudice and Discrimination. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/prejudice.html Ramsden, P. (2014). Prejudice Lecture (24/01/2014). Accessed Huddersfield Unilearn. https://unilearn.hud.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_15678_1%26url%3D Rhodes, C. (2013). PY4 Section A: Controversies Handout, Oldham Sixth Form College: Psychology lesson.

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