I suppose I should preface this by suggesting that I consider there to be a wide gap between traditional values, conservative political ideology, and fundamentalist extermism. I think human culture is devoid of some of its greatest qualities without a respect for what has come before. While on the opposite side, fundamentalism is possibly the worst representation of humanity.
I know that the term conservative has many meanings to people depending on how they use it, but specifically in regard to those who consider themselves Republicans in this country, I really resonate with the assessment below.
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/0...
Politically conservative agendas may range from supporting the Vietnam War to upholding traditional moral and religious values to opposing welfare. But are there consistent underlying motivations?
Four researchers who culled through 50 years of research literature about the psychology of conservatism report that at the core of political conservatism is the resistance to change and a tolerance for inequality, and that some of the common psychological factors linked to political conservatism include:
- Fear and aggression
- Dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity
- Uncertainty avoidance
- Need for cognitive closure
- Terror management
"From our perspective, these psychological factors are capable of contributing to the adoption of conservative ideological contents, either independently or in combination," the researchers wrote in an article, "Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition," recently published in the American Psychological Association's Psychological Bulletin.