Pedagogic design and application of a program to reduce stereotypy and automatic prejudice in the field of University Training.

Aim: Stereotypy and prejudice are phenomenons widely spread in all societies that hinder social cohesion and the modern aspiration of creating a society for all ages. Particularly, it has been highlighted from the social cognition approach that stereotypes and prejudices are automatically activated and applied by default, which increases its capacity to create discriminatory behaviours. Education is one of the fields in which the reduction of slants and conflicts among groups is considered, trying to answer to the social aspirations with training programs that promote diversity and intergenerational coexistence. In the last decade there has been a proliferation of efforts trying to find out the conditions that can control and even change the automatic non-wanted influences. However, the intervention and evaluation instruments available are few. The present project aims at analyzing the effectivity of different strategies to reduce stereotypy and prejudice, and evaluating its effects on older adults' education and behaviour. All in all, it is about developing pedagogic applications for a model that will explain the change in the spontaneous activation of evaluations and beliefs, and designing an intervention and evaluation program to reduce stereotypy and prejudice among the older adults that participate in university training programs in Castilla y León.

Design: Experimental   and of research and action.

Research field: Castilla y León.

Research participants: 3000 People older than 55 years that participate in the University Programs for Older Adults in Castilla y León.

Instruments: The data will be gather by means of instruments elaborated and valid for autocategorization, openness to the experience and self-esteem. Training interviews and debate groups will guide the elaboration of the training program for the older adults to be able to control stereotypy and prejudice.

Determinations: The effectiveness of the strategy will be determined depending on the discrepancies between the egalitarian rules and the behaviours, based on the autofocus and on the reduction of automatic stereotypy and prejudice of the older adults from the experience's interuniversity program of Castilla y León. The predominant characteristics of a training program for the control of stereotypy and prejudice in older adults university training will be determined, contributing so with the creation of a society for all ages.