An alternative way of introducing the supersymmetric cosmological term in a supergravity theory is presented. We show that the AdS-Lorentz superalgebra allows to construct a geometrical formulation of supergravity containing a generalized supersymmetric cosmological constant. The N = 1, D = 4 supergravity action is built only from the curvatures of the AdS-Lorentz superalgebra and corresponds to a MacDowell-Mansouri like action. The extension to a generalized AdS-Lorentz superalgebra is also analyzed.