• Frequent leisure activity is associated with better physical and mental health. • Social and mindfulness activities are especially tied to mental health benefits. • Physical activities show the strongest association with physical health outcomes. • Sedentary activities negatively correlate with physical health. • Activity diversity offers no added health benefits beyond activity frequency. Engagement in leisure activities has been linked to improved mental and physical health. However, the extent to which different aspects of these activities (i.e., frequency, diversity, type) are associated with health in large-scale studies remains unclear. Drawing on comprehensive nationwide pandemic-era data, this study examined associations between the frequency and diversity of leisure activities and self-perceived health, and whether specific activity domains have stronger associations with physical or mental health. Data were drawn from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study, including responses from 2,037 adults. Activity frequency and diversity were assessed across six domains: physical, social, cognitive, mindfulness, volunteer, and other activities. Ordered logistic regression was used to model associations between activities and self-perceived physical and mental health, adjusting for sociodemographic and health factors. Overall activity frequency was positively associated with physical and mental health. Social and mindfulness activities were more strongly associated with mental health, while physical activities were more strongly correlated with physical health. Other, more sedentary activities, were inversely associated with physical health. Activity diversity was not associated with health beyond frequency. Findings highlight the importance of active pursuits and suggest type and frequency of activities, rather than diversity, are associated with health.

• In Japanese people, aging expands personal space (PS) only in men. • Demographic variables significantly explained PS while the sensory decline did not. • Self-protection, one of the PS’s mechanisms, was not supported. • Inter-individual difference in discomfort tolerance was confirmed for each PS. Personal space is the area around an individual that, when intruded upon, causes discomfort related to self-protection. While aging tends to expand personal space owing to functional decline, our preliminary survey results suggest that Japanese individuals do not believe this applies to older Japanese adults. We further investigated the effect of age and sensory function, in addition to other confounding variables such as gender, on personal space, among Japanese adults by using two methods for validity: the standard stop-distance paradigm and the discomfort paradigm. Because the results for the stop-distance paradigm and discomfort paradigm did not correlate well, we utilized the results of the discomfort paradigm to predict participants’ feelings of discomfort with the distance as assessed by the stop-distance paradigm. Age-related expansion of personal space was observed only in men, which does not fully conform to the findings of previous studies or the proposed underlying mechanism of self-protection. Further, while sensory function did not significantly explain variability in personal space, demographic variables, such as gender, significantly affected personal space and were interpretable given the cultural characteristics and health-related factors of Japanese people, which are further discussed.

The compatibility (i.e., the best match) of a dog and it’s owner based on their personalities is a promising criterion for evaluating the functionality of their relationship, especially in working dog dyads. This study is possibly the first to investigate this compatibility by testing 92 dog-human teams, including guide dogs for the blind and police dogs. The personality of both partners was assessed, as well as various relationship parameters, their performance (i.e., speed and accuracy) as a team in an obstacle course, and their performance in a showing paradigm (i.e., speed and accuracy). We found that relationship satisfaction was highest when humans and dogs both scored low on openness or agreeableness. These results support the hypothesis that compatibility is reached via corresponding (i.e., same) traits. However, teams comprising highly agreeable dogs and humans performed poorly in the obstacle course. Performance in both behavioral tasks was highest in teams with dogs that were more open and extraverted. These results contribute to the understanding of a functional dog-human relationship and can potentially inform suitable assignment of dogs to owners, thereby preventing the returning of (working-) dogs.

• Adaptive performance is important in the constant changing environment of healthcare. • Personality traits – the Big Five – of nursing professionals are possible related to adaptive performance. • Nursing professionals’ rate themselves mostly as agreeable and conscientious. • Agreeableness and conscientiousness are not related to adaptive performance. • Openness is positively and significantly related to adaptive performance. • Neuroticism is negatively and significantly related to adaptive performance Improvements in healthcare are imperative. In response, healthcare professionals should continue to learn and develop innovative solutions. This means healthcare organizations require adaptive performers. Personality traits may be related to adaptive performance. This study investigates this possible relationship. Professionals (N = 583) working in the field of nursing in the Netherlands and the United States completed a survey measuring adaptive performance and the personality traits of agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, openness, and neuroticism. We studied to what extent personality traits were related to adaptive performance. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to test whether personality traits were related to adaptive performance. We found that nurses openness and extraversion were positively related to adaptive performance, while neuroticism was negatively related. We found that nursing professionals characterized themselves predominantly as agreeable and conscientious. These personality traits were not related to adaptive performance. Human resource departments of healthcare organizations could include these outcomes in their assessments and learning and development programs. Healthcare organizations could adopt a strategy that considers the findings of this study when implementing changes. Educational institutions should integrate these findings on adaptive performance when implementing changes.