Love and affectionate touch toward romantic partners all over the world.

Touch is the primary way people communicate intimacy in romantic relationships, and affectionate touch behaviors such as stroking, hugging and kissing are universally observed in partnerships all over the world. Here, we explored the association of love and affectionate touch behaviors in romantic partnerships in two studies comprising 7880 participants. In the first study, we used a cross-cultural survey conducted in 37 countries to test whether love was universally associated with affectionate touch behaviors. In the second study, using a more fine-tuned touch behavior scale, we tested whether the frequency of affectionate touch behaviors was related to love in romantic partnerships. As hypothesized, love was significantly and positively associated with affectionate touch behaviors in both studies and this result was replicated regardless of the inclusion of potentially relevant factors as controls. Altogether, our data strongly suggest that affectionate touch is a relatively stable characteristic of human romantic relationships that is robustly and reliably related to the degree of reported love between partners.

Cultural Correlates of Internet Addiction.

Increasing problems connected with excessive Internet use can be observed all over the world. Internet addiction is defined as excessive involvement in the Internet with negative consequences. The main aim of the study was to investigate economic indicators as correlates of Internet addiction. The study was conducted in nine countries. The number of participants amounted to a total of 3,279 Internet users (54% were female), with a mean age of M = 25.14 (SD = 10.03). The authors used Young's Internet Addiction Test. In addition, some social and economic indicators characterizing the countries were taken into consideration. We found that Internet addiction was positively related to economic well-being, social progress, and human development as well as negatively related to human well-being, health, safety, and security. The results of the study contribute to the international debate on Internet addiction.

Cultural and Personality Predictors of Facebook Intrusion: A Cross-Cultural Study.

The increase in the number of users of social networking sites (SNS) has inspired intense efforts to determine intercultural differences between them. The main aim of the study was to investigate the cultural and personal predictors of Facebook intrusion. A total of 2628 Facebook users from eight countries took part in the study. The Facebook Intrusion Questionnaire, the Ten-Item Personality Inventory, and the Singelis Scale were used. We found that two variables related to Country were significantly related to Facebook intrusion: uniqueness (negatively) and low context (positively); of the personality variables, conscientiousness, and emotional stability were negatively related to the dependent variable of Facebook intrusion across different countries, which may indicate the universal pattern of Facebook intrusion. The results of the study will contribute to the international debate on the phenomenon of SNS.

An international perspective on Facebook intrusion.

Facebook has become one of the most popular social networking websites in the world. The main aim of the study was to present an international comparison of Facebook intrusion and Internet penetration while examining possible gender differences. The study consisted of 2589 participants from eight countries: China, Greece, Israel, Italy, Poland, Romania, Turkey, USA. Facebook intrusion and Internet penetration were taken into consideration. In this study the relationship between Facebook intrusion and Internet penetration was demonstrated. Facebook intrusion was slightly negatively related to Internet penetration in each country.

Psychotic depression due to giant condyloma Buschke-Löwenstein tumors.

UNLABELLED: A 63-year-old patient, with no psychiatric history, was admitted in the psychiatric department with depressed mood, loss of interest in activities, apathy, insomnia, attention deficit, irritability, social withdrawal, prejudice and abandon delusions. Cerebral computed tomography (CT) scan was normal but the general physical examination revealed a voluminous tumor in the inguino-pubic-ano-genital area measuring 350/80/40 mm, which appeared 15 years ago and grew gradually leading to local rickety hygiene and also to depression, especially in the last time period when the tumor grew faster. The DSM-IV-TR diagnostic was affective disorder due to general medical condition. Surgical exams concluded it was a giant exophytic tumor and was recommended a pre-operative abdominal CT scan, which did not revealed metastatic spread. The treatment consisted in wide radical excision into the tumor-free resection margins. Anatomopathological exam concluded condyloma acuminatum - Buschke-Löwenstein tumor (BLT), a very rare borderline tumor. In post-operative period, progress of depression was spectacular, with the full mental recovery by decreasing the antidepressant and antipsychotic medication, fact that strengthen the initial diagnostic of depression due to a general medical condition. CONCLUSIONS: Patients diagnosed with BLT may develop mental disorders especially with devaluation and low self-esteem, social withdrawal and secondary functional impairment. Due to the malignancy risk in such tumors and also the psychiatric unfavorable recovery prognostic in case of continuous general medical condition, the only effective treatment is tumor resection with surgical, oncological, psychiatric postoperative revaluation.