Rationalization

=**__Rationalization__**=


 * Rationalization enables the adolescent to deal with overpowering emotional feelings.**

It is a process whereby an individual seeks to explain an often-unpleasant emotion or behavior in a way that will preserve his or her self-esteem. In general it is the process of constructing a logical justification for a belief, decision, action or lack there of that was originally arrived at through a different mental process.


 * Rationalization is one of the defense mechanisms proposed by Sigmund Freund and later developed by his daughter Anna Freud.**

Examples for Rationalization:
A man buys an expensive car and then tells people his old car was very unreliable, very unsafe, etc.

A person fails to get good enough results to get into a chosen university and then says that they didn't want to go there anyway.

You fail a test, and then you say it might be because you didn’t sleep enough or it was just not your day.

Another example, consider a person who bought one of the first home computers in 1980 primarily motivated by the excitement of playing with a computer. If he felt that his friends would not accept "having fun" as a sufficient reason for the purchase, he might have searched for other justifications and ended up telling them how much time it was going to save him in doing his taxes.

Alike physical maturity there is a cognitive maturity that means not everybody is able to make this kind of rationalization at the same age. The age and differences vary for example from nation to nation.

www.wikipedia.com Glencoe, Understanding Psychology http://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/coping/rationalization.htm
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