Rationalisation
Rationalisation is the finding of plausible-sounding excuses to justify behaviour that would otherwise threaten one's self-esteem. Rather than acknowledging an uncomfortable motive or fault directly, the person constructs a reasonable-seeming explanation that protects their own sense of being fundamentally in the right.
Illustration
After snapping angrily at a junior colleague over a minor mistake, a manager tells himself, and later others, that it 'was necessary to maintain standards,' quietly avoiding the simpler truth that he was already in a bad mood before the mistake was even made.
References
- Casey, P. & Kelly, B. (2019). Fish's Clinical Psychopathology, 4th ed. Appendix II, 'Defences and Distortions'.