Our paper examines the cognitive, affective and motivational factors of Turkish citizens’ political arguments and considerations as they are determined by two ideological orientations: Political Islam and Kemalist nationalism. In addition, it examines how the influence of the two ideologies is mediated by political sophistication. Extending our previous work that analyzed the World Value Survey data, this paper examines qualitative interview data to identify the significance of Political Islam and Kemalist Nationalism on beliefs, norms and values and how these two ideological orientations shape political attitudes. We also focus on the dynamic role of political sophistication in the formation of political arguments and considerations and examine how understanding politics conditions, alters the function of the two ideologies mentioned above. Our political-psychological approach follows the classic methodology of Lane (1962) and Hochschild (1981) and allows capturing the role of these complex political ideologies in the changing political environment of modern Turkey.
