The paper is theoretical in nature. It considers the issue of development from the point of view of narrative psychology, organized according to three theses. The psychological world of a person is a unique semantic construction of meaningful elements drawn from the culture (including values, patterns of reasoning, personality patterns, developmental narratives, and other narratives). In undisturbed psycho-biological functioning, the acquisition of basic meanings occurs in the communicative environment of a developing organism (in the process of interaction with loved ones) primarily through language. At the advanced level – thanks to autobiographical reflexivity – a person can consciously direct his or her own development, minimizing some limitations: both biological (e.g. changes that come at an older age) and environmental determinism (possible distancing from selected cultural contents).