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Human beings are constantly thinking about others and about what others are thinking about them, and what others are thinking about the others, and so on. One may be wondering about what is going on inside the other. One desires or fears that other people will know what is going on inside oneself. . . . One sees both that this area is the very heart of many relationships, and that we have in fact very little systematic and scientifically tested information about it."What he thinks she thinks" and "what she thinks he thinks" about each other's performance of instrumental and companionship roles is more important to marital satisfaction than whether the husband's and wge's perceptiorw are in fact accurate. (1,2, 13). Static, individual-centered models of marriage (6) have been replaced by dynamic, relationship-centered models (11). These interpersonal models view the marital relationship as a matrix of mutually defined, interlocking, and interdependent Arthur P. Bochner is Professor of Speech Communication at Temple University. In recent years the focus of research on communication in marriage has shifted from the individuals in the relationship to the relationship between the individuals