Does taking the other person's perspective reduce conflict in relationships and make a marriage more satisfying? Interpersonal Decentering is a measure of perspective taking. This kind of mature social cognition is scored from Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) narratives. Low Decentering scores (1) show egocentrism. Moderate scores show immature Decentering. More mature scores (5-8) require internalization. The most mature score (9) requires coordination of self and other internalization. This study used data from the Oakland Growth Study (ogs), which was done at the Institute Human Development (IHD) at the University of California Berkeley. The study began in 1932 when participants were 11-12 years old. Participants told stories and were interviewed at age 37-39 (1958-1960). The interview asked for information about marital and parental satisfactions. In 1964, the participants returned a questionnaire. The items asked how important was each item on a list of satisfactions from marriage, in their own opinion and their spouses opinion. They also rated their own marital satisfaction; for men, more mature Decentering predicted less marital satisfaction. Women with higher Decentering scores rated material living standarts less important for themselves and their spouses. Women with higher Decentering scores also rated heir spouses as prioritizing children as a more important part of marriage, compared with women lower in Decentering.