Psychological Rationalization
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A Psychological Rationalization is a defense mechanism in which controversial behaviors or feelings are justified and explained in a seemingly rational or logical manner to avoid the true explanation, and are made consciously tolerable— or even admirable and superior —by plausible means.
- AKA: Making Excuses.
- See: Logic, Introspection Illusion, Psychology, Defense Mechanism, Informal Fallacy, Reasoning, ad Hoc Hypothesizing, Guilt (Emotion), Shame.
References
2016
- (Wikipedia, 2016) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/rationalization_(psychology) Retrieved:2016-10-5.
- In psychology and logic, rationalization or rationalisation (also known as making excuses [1] ) is a defense mechanism in which controversial behaviors or feelings are justified and explained in a seemingly rational or logical manner to avoid the true explanation, and are made consciously tolerable— or even admirable and superior —by plausible means. It is also an informal fallacy of reasoning. Rationalisation happens in two steps: # A decision, action, judgement is made for a given reason, or no (known) reason at all. # A rationalisation is performed, constructing a seemingly good or logical reason, as an attempt to justify the act after the fact (for oneself or others). Rationalization encourages irrational or unacceptable behavior, motives, or feelings and often involves ad hoc hypothesizing. This process ranges from fully conscious (e.g. to present an external defense against ridicule from others) to mostly unconscious (e.g. to create a block against internal feelings of guilt or shame). People rationalize for various reasons — sometimes when we think we know ourselves better than we do. Rationalization may differentiatethe original deterministic explanation of the behavior or feeling in question.