Recent research investigating the consequences of match-mismatch in cognitive style status for interpersonal attraction in teacher-student, patient-therapist, and other dyads suggests that matched persons are more likely to develop positive feelings toward each other. To assess the impact of cognitive style on the outcomes experienced by married partners, 48 married couples participated in a research session which included the Embedded-Figures Test, Rotter's I-E Scale, the Locke Wallace Short Marital Adjustment Test, and the Ryder Lovesickness Scale. Contrary to predictions, the data suggested that regardless of the wives' locus of control or the interaction of the husbands' and wives' locus of control, wives with external husbands (field dependent--those with a turning-toward-people orientation) reported more dissatisfaction than wives married to internal husbands (field independent--those more concerned with ideas and principles rather than people). With regard to cognitive style, results showed that husbands married to field-dependent wives and wives from matched dyads had more complaints about their marital relationships. Matched dyads' reports of fewer complaints may be due mostly to their ability to settle disagreements more amicably. The findings suggest that cognitive personality variables may be useful in predicting marital satisfaction, and that partners' relative personality orientations may be more important for describing their relationship than individual test scores. (Author/JAC)