Here is a handy user guide as to the key differences among Determination, Stubbornness, and Defiance.
DETERMINATION is about focusing on achieving a specific desired outcome. So it is holding to one consistent ideal because you believe that a specific approach based on that ideal will deliver that specific desired outcome.
STUBBORNNESS is about refusing to adjust your current rationale regardless of the outcome. Your rationale may not be the best one, it may not even be the right one, but you do have a rationale for clinging to your position or opinion. The thing is, you just refuse to adapt it to the requirements of your circumstances.
DEFIANCE is about automatically rejecting the possibility of any alternative to whatever it is you currently have in mind. Note that what you “have in mind” is seldom any one specific fact or idea anchored in a specific belief. As you have no specific rationale supporting your position, defiance reflects simply a mindless refusal to be moved.
So, which one are you – determined, stubborn or defiant? All of us – right or wrong – are probably all three at some point, on certain issues, at different times.
What you may want to ask yourself is: “Which one would I like my default setting to be?” And then perhaps work assiduously to make it so….?