Not surprisingly how you perceive yourself is a foundational aspect of how others perceive you.  As with most things, it is the extreme aspects of how you see yourself that are most impactful, balanced behaviour is often overlooked. 

The mental picture you have of yourself is intricately in-twined with your values and personality.  It’s also impacted by the way you believe others view you. 

Self Worth

Your interpretation of the intent of other peoples actions can drive your behavioural responses to them.   You believe their actions represent what they think of you, coupled with how you wish to be viewed (your self image) if their is a gap, a strong emotional response can occur.

To a large extent the your mental image of what you are and how you should be perceived is unconscious and the associated emotion laden response might not be well thought out. 

In fact, without consciously realizing you may believe the others are making an attack on your self worth.  They think less of you than they should.  The reality could be quite different and their behaviour was just innocuous (to you it was ferocious). 

Think about it!

Pride, in the negative sense, can lead to an irrationally corrupt sense of your personal value.   In this case, your pride can be the driver of inappropriate behavior and in a vicious cycle of truth, this leads the others to develop a negative perspective of you, when in fact none existed before, you only thought it did.