A study analyzed the decision making process of a dual-career married couple debating whether they should relocate for his or her career. Their interaction was examined and interpreted through multiple components of conversational context, such as institutional constraints influencing the couple, their shared knowledge and perceptions, the structure of their conversation, and their language. The conversation analysis was compared with the couple's own description of their relationship and decision making process. Results showed that while they described themselves as equal partners in decision making, the analysis suggested that the husband tended to exert more influence over the conversations and the decisions and the wife tended to keep the conversation balanced and to give in where decisions were concerned. Reasons for the discrepancy between their perceptions of their behavior and their actual behavior include the husband's need to control the situation and the wife's collaboration with him, and the wife's need for the husband to "take charge," indicating that "openness" and honesty may be poor predictors of satisfaction in a relationship. (HTH)