Dignity or Selfishness
In regard to psychoanalytics, "ego" is the psychological structure that maintains balance of human minds and compromise the other two psycho structures -
Superego and ID.
Ego in Freudian psychology is "one of the three fundamental components of the personality; in the baby, the ego develops out od the id from the age of about 6 - 8 months as a result of its life experiences, to become the locus of emotions" (Blackwell's glossary of psychological terms).
"Ego is the one and only obstacle to enlightenment. Ego is pride. Ego is arrogent self-importance. Ego is the deeply mechanical and profoundly compulsive need to always see the personal self as being separate from others, separate from the world, separate from the whole universe. Ego is a love-denying obsession with separation, narcissism, and self-concern" (Andrew Cohen's Living Enlightenment, 2002).
In some cultures, when a person does something wrong and does not want to say "sorry," this person may be assumed that he or she has a high level of ego
(or dignity, in their senses).
In the same situation, others may see that
the person just want to do what he or she wants, and that the person does not care however others think about him or herself.
So from this view, others may call him or her a selfish one.
In my view, what ego is depends on how we will perceive and understand. And we do it uniquely.
The most important thing is how well you understand
"the ego" in someone else's perspective.