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Abstract: The article provides a critical overview of different interpretations of a person’s self-development that exist in psychology. It is proved that: 1) self-development should not be analyzed without its dialectic unity with self-functioning. Self-functioning of a person is a prerequisite of their self-development and its result; 2) self-development process should not be analyzed disregard of such stages as appearance of something new, its development and transition of the developing into developed. New in the life of a person appears first in a rough form, then it undergoes certain development, grows, acquires its functions and is perfected after that; 3) it is wrong to include self-actualization into the forms of self-development alongside with self-assertion and self-perfection, although sometimes self-actualization is equated to self-realization. Self-actualization is, in our opinion, a transfer of the needs and opportunities of a person’s self-development from potential to real with the help of self-cognition. Transfer of opportunities into reality to fulfill the needs of a person is self-realization; 4) self-realization should not be equated to productive activity. It is frequent that in real life positive and negative self-realization are combined. Moreover, these types of self-realization may transform into each other. Self-realization is a free activity of a person which determines the needs it will satisfy and the means necessary to do this; 5) one of the main drawbacks in the study of the problem of self-development in psychology is the abstract nature of such research works as they analyze self-development in isolation from those activities where it is actively employed. The article attempts at elimination of these problems by means of identification of esoteric activities (self-cognition, self-education, self-recovery and self-management) and exoteric activities (professional activity, social-political, family, everyday, sport, aesthetic and other activities). Each type of esoteric activities is a kind of a person’s self-development. Self-development of a person in exoteric types of activities depends on the level of the person’s development and the degree of innovativeness.