Focusing on the consideration of societal and developmental contexts in interpersonal communication research, this essay addresses two common problems: (1) that studies of dyadic communicative interaction do not refer to the larger issues of social change and stability, as if the macro- and micro-levels of analysis can be treated in isolation; and (2) that interpersonal communication studies do not refer to the history of the relationships concerned, thus divorcing them from their developmental context. Two general axioms of relational development suggesting a different view of interpersonal communication are advanced: that society as we know it would not exist were it not for relational change, and that an interstage transition occurs between relational states. An interdependence is said to exist between stability of the social structure and relational development at the dyadic level. The paper also argues that relational change is the central concept necessary for connecting the micro- and macro-levels of social process. Two qualitative case studies of relational development are then presented to support these theoretical positions and to demonstrate the links between interpersonal and social processes. These studies rely on the structural theory of Paul Ricoeur and Claude Levi-Strauss and on the social theory of Anthony Giddens for analysis and interpretation. Notes and figures are appended. (JD)