What is the cause of prejudice? This is one of the few questions of interest 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 behavior. It was developed by Gordon Allport in 1985, social psychology focuses on social interactions that cause various behaviors. It is scientific because behavior can be observed and therefore measured in many forms. This is an objective way of collecting data that can then be used as evidence to support a number of theories. One of the main points of social psychology is that it focuses not only on motor activities but also on behavior, such as facial expressions, which can be observed and measured. Social psychology is interested in emotions caused by actions presented and influenced by our thoughts. As humans we are socialized to behave the way we do even if sometimes that means having prejudices (Hogg & Vaughan, 2011). What does it mean to have prejudices? There are many definitions of prejudice, but the simplest answer is "expressing judgment and/or having a negative attitude towards a particular individual or group of individuals." It was once said "Don't judge a book by its cover", but as humans we naturally judge people based on many factors, from hair color, to appearance, to more extreme judgments such as skin color, gender, culture, etc. The problem is that we live in a world where prejudice occurs on a daily basis and it is all due to the social control in which we are socialized to behave like the "norm" created by our society. As soon as an individual steps outside the “norm,” that particular person is immediately treated and viewed differently. Because… half of the paper… you ask but in this case our behavior is due to the overwhelming power of social control which can include every aspect I have outlined above. We have many theories and data to support some aspects of this, but do we really know the true meaning of socialization 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.htmlRamsden, P. (2014). Lesson on prejudices (01/24/2014). Access to 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%3DRhodes, C. (2013) . PY4 Section A: Disputes Handout, Oldham Sixth Form College: Psychology Lecture.