Raquel Lorente Martínez

Introductory psychology courses can be demotivating for students of social sciences degrees such as Audiovisual Communication and Journalism. Although the importance of this subject is more than justified, it is essential to design and apply innovative strategies that stimulate the teaching–learning process among first-year students, so that, through activities other than traditional lectures, their interest in behavioural sciences is aroused and they understand the importance of this subject for the future development of their professional careers. The aim of this paper is to present MICROFEST, a PIEU-UMH teaching innovation project, which has been applied as part of the continuous evaluation of students of the Fundamentals of Psychology course, taught in the first year of the Audiovisual Communication, Journalism and Joint Honours degree programmes at the Miguel Hernández University, during the 2020/21 academic year (n = 167). Through a format similar to that of a short film festival, an activity was proposed that involves the development of a series of sequential tasks aimed at creating, in pairs, a fictional audiovisual micro-story that addresses content or a theme directly related to psychology. The results obtained after the implementation of the project during the four months of the course show that the students of the three degree programmes presented a high level of performance in this part of the course, have favourable attitudes towards it and valued the initiative very positively. The indicators of satisfaction with the project were found to be good predictors of motivation towards the subject as a whole. Thus, continuance of the design and application of teaching innovation strategies that favour the teaching–learning process is recommended, and students’ satisfaction and attitudes toward it.

This study aims to analyse the effectiveness of a psychosocial intervention programme in preventing loneliness and increasing self-efficacy and social participation among older women living alone in Spain. A sequential, nested experimental design was used, with a primary quantitative quasi-experimental pre-post study with a control group (CG) and a secondary qualitative study. A total of 48 women participated, and 34 of them (the experimental group, EG) received a 25-hr psychosocial support intervention delivered by volunteers who focused on three aspects: conversation, attribution retraining and behavioural activation. The other women remained on the waiting list (CG = 14). The women (EG and CG) were all interviewed before and after the intervention and a follow-up of the EG was performed at 6 months (N = 25). Semi-structured interviews were used to collect sociodemographic and health-related data, as well as data on satisfaction with the programme and its benefits. Validated instruments were used to collect data on the dependent variables (self-efficacy in ageing, subjective social participation and loneliness). Quantitative and qualitative methods were used for data analysis. Compared to the pre-test results, women in the EG improved their self-efficacy in ageing (t-test: −2.246; p: 0.031; d: 0.30), and, more specifically, their self-efficacy in managing socio-emotional problems such as loneliness (t-test: −1.995; p: 0.054; d: 0.25) and in managing their health (t-test: −2.450; p: 0.020; d: 0.47). No significant differences were observed between the follow-up and the post-test results, meaning that the changes identified after the intervention remained stable. Four additional categories of benefits were identified in the participants' discourses. In conclusion, the intervention appears to be beneficial and effective in improving self-efficacy, which is a well-established predictor of loneliness in old age, in a group of vulnerable individuals. Further studies on this type of community intervention are necessary to prevent loneliness among older people.

Desde el Modelo PEACE se sugiere que realizar intervenciones combinadas (educación sobre el envejecimiento y contacto intergeneracional) es la mejor estrategia para combatir el edadismo. Este estudio pretende observar el impacto del aprendizaje experiencial al comprobar empíricamente si el contacto intergeneracional tiene efectos sobre los estereotipos negativos hacia la vejez de un grupo de estudiantes que había recibido previamente formación teórica sobre el envejecimiento en un programa de voluntariado universitario. Se realizó un diseño pre-post sin grupo control con 18 participantes del programa. Los estereotipos negativos hacia la vejez se evaluaron mediante la escala CENVE, comparando los datos de los participantes en dos momentos temporales (tras recibir la formación teórica y tras realizar la práctica de contacto intergeneracional). Se observó una reducción estadísticamente significativa de los estereotipos relacionados con aspectos motivacionales y sociales del envejecimiento tras realizar la práctica de contacto intergeneracional, aspecto en el que no mostraron cambios tras haber recibido la formación teórica del Programa, respecto al pre-test. Este hallazgo evidencia el potencial de los programas combinados para eliminar estereotipos edadistas en contextos educativos.