List of contributors; Introduction Valerie Manusov; Part I. Attribution, Affect, and Well-Being in Relationships: 1. Affective influences on communication and attributions in relationships Joseph P. Forgas; 2. Communication and attribution: an exploration of the effect of music and mood on intimate couples' verbal and nonverbal conflict resolution behaviors James M. Honeycutt and Michael E. Eidenmuller; 3. Making sense of hurtful interactions in close relationships: when hurt feelings create distance Anita L. Vangelisti; 4. The association between accounts of relationship development events and relational and personal well-being Jeanne Flora and Chris Segrin; Commentary: affect, attribution, and communication: uniting interaction episodes and global relationship judgments Denise Haunani Solomon; Part II. Attributions and Communication in Dating and Marital Relationships: 5. Attributions, communication, and the development of a marital identity Catherine A. Surra and Denise S. Bartell; 6. Causal attributions of relationship quality Ellen Berscheid, Jason Lopes, Hilary Ammazzalorso, and Nora Langenfeld; 7. The content of attributions in couples' communication Valerie Manusov and Jody Koenig; 8. Handling pressures for change in marriage: making attributions for relational dialectics Patricia Noller, Judith A. Feeney and Anita Blakely-Smith; 9. The role of marital behavior in the longitudinal association between attribution and marital quality Matthew D. Johnson, Benjamin R. Karney, Ronald Rogge, and Thomas N. Bradbury; 10. Stepping into the stream of thought: cognition during marital conflict Alan Sillars, Linda J. Roberts, Tim Dun, and Kenneth Leonard; Commentary: thanks for the curry: advancing boldly into a new millennium of relationship attribution research Frank D. Fincham; Part III. New Directions and Contexts for Attributions and Communication: 11. Attributions and regulative communications by parents participating in a community-based child physical; abuse prevention program Steven R. Wilson and Ellen E. Whipple; 12. 'True lies': children's abuse history and power attributions as influences on deception detection Daphne Blunt Bugental, William Shennum, Mark Frank, and Paul Ekman; 13. HIV-infected persons' attributions for the disclosure of the seropositive diagnosis to significant others Valerian J. Dergla and Barbara A. Winstead; 14. Attributions about communications styles and strategies: prediciting dating couples' safe-sex discussions and relationship satisfaction Candida C. Peterson, Ashlea Troth, Cynthia Gallois, and Judith Feeney; 15. Why do people have affairs? Recent research and future directions about attributions for extramarital involvement David Atkins, Sona Dimidjian, and Neil Jacobson; 16. Attribution in social and parasocial relationships Rebecca B. Rubin and Alan M. Rubin; Commentary: extending attribution theory: contributions and cautions Sandra Metts; Part IV. A Discussion of Attribution Theory for Close Relationships: 17. The status of attribution theory qua theory in personal relationships Brian H. Spitzberg; 18. Are there superior options? Commentary on Spizberg's 'the status of attribution theory qua theory in personal relationships' John H. Harvey and Julia Ormazu; Index.