"self-interested behavior" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
You can use it to refer to behavior that is motivated by one's own personal gain, as opposed to behavior that is motivated by altruism or consideration of others. For example, you could say: "John's self-interested behavior was obvious when he took credit for his assistant's work."
Rather than reject mainstream theory, behaviorists embrace its emphasis on rational, self-interested behavior.
"There is no room in Iraq for the kind of lawless, self-interested behavior we have seen over recent weeks," Mr. Bremer said.
Rational, self-interested behavior -- a world in which people responded to changes in prices and wages but not to emotion or one another's actions -- most easily fit into these new equations.
Public goods run counter to Adam Smith's "invisible hand" theory in that self-interested behavior by individuals does not, as the theory would have it, lead to good outcomes for society as a whole.
Tennis is an individual sport full of self-interested behavior and short-term thinking where one of the core principles is to maximize revenue while your ranking and status allow it.
Psychological egoism is supported by our frequent observation of self-interested behavior.
'Nudges' subtly alter the social and physical environment to enhance capacity for subconscious, self-interested behaviors, without actively restricting options.
Responsibility enacts that Good, that trace of the infinite, because such instances of answering to or for another are everyday events, even though they are not typical of natural, self-interested behaviors.
Religion is a binding ideology, one that constrains the purely self-interested behaviors we are naturally endowed with.
Indeed, self-interested behaviour was usually described as "vicious".
In the context of adjudication, as will be elaborated below, the political economist interprets self-interested judicial behavior as decisions that promote the policy preferences of the judge.
