Pratto, Sidanius, Stallwarth y Malle (1994) formularon la Teoría de la Dominancia Social para expresar el deseo de los individuos por establecer y mantener la jerarquía social y la subordinación de grupos inferiores a los superiores. Para medir las diferencias individuales en este constructo elaboraron la escala de la Orientación a la Dominancia Social (SDO). Recientes investigaciones han señalado la existencia de una estructura bifactorial de la escala: Antiigualitarismo y Orientación a la Dominancia Grupal (Jost y Thompson, 2000; Sidanius y Peña, 2002), a pesar de que en la formulación original se abogaba por la presencia de un constructo unitario. El presente estudio tiene como finalidad validar la escala de Orientación a la Dominancia Social en una muestra española, así como comprobar qué estructura factorial es más adecuada. Nuestros resultados muestran una buena fiabilidad de la adaptación y validez predictiva. Por su parte, los análisis factoriales realizados muestran un mejor apoyo para la estructura en dos factores propuesta por Jost y Thompson (2000).

University Programs for Older Adults (Programas Universitarios para Adultos Mayores or PUMAs) have been developed throughout the world as an outcome of two worldwide policies: Life Long Learning (LLL) and Active Aging as a priority direction (UN, 2002). According to these policies, older persons should become full participants in the development process of a society, sharing in its benefits, while policies and actions should promote a positive view of aging. The present paper sets out to report some of the results from the evaluation of four PUMAs offered in 2009–2010 at four Universities: Autónoma University of Madrid (Spain), Autónoma University of Mexico (Mexico), Catholic University (Chile), and La Habana University (Cuba). With this purpose, a study with quasiexperimental design and nonequivalent control group was carried out. In total, 313 students (75% women, age range 50–87) on these four PUMAs and 190 controls (77% female, age range 50–91) participated in this evaluation study. Pre- and postexperimental and control comparisons results yielded significant differences in the expected direction: those people attending PUMAs significantly improved their self-perception of aging and group stereotypes, as well as significantly reduced their negative affect, and improving their emotional balance. At the same time, their perception of cultural age stereotypes became more negative. The results are discussed from the point of view of the II International Plan of Action on Aging objectives: the reduction of negative stereotypes and the promotion of the role of PUMAs in active aging.

The aim of this work was to study attitudes toward people with disabilities from the viewpoint of the integrated threat theory of prejudice. This theory postulates that threat may cause negative attitudes toward a group and posits that such threat may come from different sources. To test this model, a study was carried out with high school students (N = 228), which included social dominance orientation (SDO) as antecedent variable. Perceived threat for resources and intergroup anxiety were the mediating threats investigated in this process. Results showed support for the theory: Perceived threat for resources and intergroup anxiety seemed to be effective mediators. SDO also appeared as a potent antecedent predictor of attitudes toward people with physical disabilities.

Building upon existing research conducted in face-to-face universities, our research explored whether, in the context of a distance learning institution, the positive association between subjective socioeconomic status and academic performance can be explained by students’ sense of belonging. To that end, we conducted a three-wave correlational study with 2,261 students enrolled in Social Psychology in a distance learning university. At the start of the academic year, we measured participants’ subjective socioeconomic status relative to other students alongside their initial expectations in terms of time investment and grades and other relevant covariates. Midway through the course, we assessed their sense of belonging to the university and, at the end, we recorded their grades. Results suggested that sense of belonging potentially serves as a mediating factor in the positive relationship between subjective socioeconomic status and grades even after accounting for variables like initial grade expectations, time commitment, gender, age, and employment situation. These findings emphasize the pivotal role of students’ psychological connection to the university in shaping their academic achievement, even within the expanding landscape of distance education.