overjustify

Verb

(third-person singular simple present overjustifies, present participle overjustifying, simple past and past participle overjustified)

To justify excessively; to provide too much justification for.
(psychology) Specifically, to provide external incentive for an already-internally-motivated behavior, thereby risking the loss of the original motivation.

Usage notes

This verb is fairly rare, but the derived noun overjustification is somewhat more common.

Origin

over- +‎ justify.

English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.

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"overjustify." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 16 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/overjustify>.

APA Style

overjustify. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/overjustify

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