Background. The successful socialization and personal development of the individual are directly related to the processes of creating an adequate social picture of the world, which is promoted by attributive processes.

The Objective of the research was an empirical test of the religious impact on the choice of attribution in the representatives of the Muslims and Orthodox Christians. The tasks of identifying the peculiarities of attributive processes in Orthodox Christians and Muslims in solving problems with a different level of complexity in a group are discussed.

Progress Report. Two groups of Orthodox Christians and Muslims were invited to participate in the research. The main empirical part was preceded by the pilot research, whose aim was to obtain an array of possible options of attribution in the groups of Muslims and Orthodox Christians. Based on the results of the pilot research a questionnaire was created, it reflects the opinions of the group members and is supplemented by the author's versions.
After the approbation stage, the main stage of the research was carried out that is aimed at revealing the peculiarities of attributive processes in Orthodox Christians and Muslims in solving problems with a different level of complexity in a group discussion.

Research Results. The results showed that the representatives of the confessions under consideration are similar in using dispositional interpretations of the keys to success and reasons for failure, i.e. the internal attribution processes do not differ between Orthodox Christians and Muslims. In addition, differences in the attribution of both group success and failure, and also individual success and failure in the representatives of the two confessions in solving problems of varying degrees of complexity were revealed.

Conclusion. Religious macrofactor performed by traditional patterns of behaviour is less significant in comparison with the classical attributive processes being the results of group dynamic processes.

The paper is the first attempt to consider cultural and historical background of the new scientific direction of Christian psychology in the post-Soviet Russia. It shows the continuity of this trend with the works of the Tsar Russia period, and the connection with the works on the psychology of faith by foreign scientists.

The reasons for reviving the interest in the psychological issues of spiritual development and religious outlook are described. Despite the fact that certain ideas and attitudes to the issues mentioned above appeared at the Soviet time, the possibility of the open movement arose only at the decline of Soviet ideology. The interest in the study of personality and individuality was increasing on a par with the issues of man’s inner world, which is unthinkable without spiritual and religious aspects of human mind. The main milestones of Moscow school of Christian psychology development are highlighted: Seminar on Christian Psychology and Anthropology at the Department of Psychology, Lomonosov Moscow State University (1990), Laboratory of Philosophical and Psychological Foundations of Human Development (actually Christian psychology laboratory) at the Psychological Institute of RAS, new specialty «Psychology of Religion» at the Department of Psychology, Lomonosov Moscow State University (early 1990s), the first Russian edition of textbook « Christian Psychology» for high schools (1995), «Chelpanovskye readings» in the Psychological Institute of RAO, which touched on Christian issues.

Several departments of the Institute of Educational Innovations RAO start practicing Christian education and psychology. International conferences of the late 1990s - early 2000s on the psychology of religion and the implementation of other facts of the Christian ideas of psychology at educational and practical activities in Russia are mentioned.