Paul, who is normally an ethical person, has an opportunity to acquire what he feels is "easy" money in his job, and he believes it is safe to steal the money because nobody would know if he does take it. paul rationalizes that it is fine to steal the money because he needs it more than the person whom the money belongs to. the psychological mechanism that causes paul to want to steal the money is poor self-esteem.

This is false.

Individuals know stealing  isn't right, yet they do it as a result of psychological mechanisms, for example, motivated blindness.

"Motivated blindness" alludes to the human propensity to neglect data that neutralizes what individuals need to accept, either in light of the fact that the conviction is to their greatest advantage or just on the grounds that they have held the conviction quite a while and they are candidly put resources into holding it. The human personality is modified to specifically observe prove supporting the ends it might want to reach, while it has a tendency to overlook or rebate confirm that conflicts with its previous inclinations.