Contextual Character of Moral Integrity

This book discusses outcomes of a study by the National Institute of Mental Health, Czech Republic, examining moral integrity in the post-communist Czech-speaking environment. Chapters map the history of the Euro-Atlantic ethical disciplines from moral philosophy and psychology to evolutionary neuroscience and socio-biology. The authors emphasize the biological and social conditionality of ethics and call for greater differentiation of both research and applied psychological standards in today’s globalised world. Using a non-European ethical system – Theravada Buddhism – as a case study, the authors explore the differences in English and Czech interpretations of the religion. They analyse cognitive styles and language as central variables in formatting and interpreting moral values, with important consequences for cultural transferability of psychological instruments. This book will appeal to academics and other specialists in psychology, psychiatry, sociology and related fields, as well as to readers interested in the psychology of ethics. 

Dita Šamánková is a consultant psychiatrist with extensive practice in the Czech Republic and Great Britain, currently employed as a clinician and researcher at National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Czech Republic; she has authored several popular science books, and regularly contributes to Czech socio-political and psychological magazines. Marek Preiss is Associate Professor and the Head of Department of Clinical Psychology at NIMH, and the University of New York in Prague, leading research projects in the area of moral integrity, personality and neuropsychology, with abundant international publications. Tereza Příhodová is a US graduated junior research psychologist and PhD student at NIMH, Czech Republic.