- When moderate trade-offs are required within the social space
(d, e,orf), people will most avoid the compromise in prestige
(d). By contrast, they will have little or no concern with sex-
type unless it verges on the unacceptable (g,which means for
most people a cross-sextyped job). - When faced with major compromises (g, h,andi), people will
sacrifice interests (i) before transgressing either their tolerable
prestige level (h) or sextype (g) boundaries. Although avoid-
ing an unacceptably low-level job (h) is of great concern,
avoiding a cross-sextyped job (g) is of yet higher concern. - Vocational interests are always of moderate concern (a, e,and
i), but they are overshadowed by concerns for either prestige
or sextype, except when both of the latter are close to optimal
(bandc).
Many combinations of compromise are possible, of course, and
only sometimes is it clear what the priorities in compromise will be.
For example, a traditional middle-class woman with Realistic inter-
ests might have a choice between carpentry and social work—that
is, between a cross-sextyped job (g) of moderately unsatisfactory
prestige (d) in her field of interest (a) and a slightly feminine job (f)
of fairly desirable prestige level (b) in an incongruent field of work
(i). The model in Figure 4.4 suggests that she will probably be more
concerned with avoiding the wrong sextype (g) than the wrong
field of work (i) and thus choose social work—a decision that would
be reinforced by its more satisfactory prestige (bversusd).
The curves in Figure 4.4 for the three types of compatibility can
be conceptualized as sensitivity curves that depict how sensitive the
average individual is to different degrees of compromise along a par-
ticular dimension of compatibility. The curves are not parallel; they
intersect. Prestige overtakes vocational interest type as the major con-
cern when compromises are moderate in degree; sextype overtakes
both when compromise is severe. The most important implication of
GOTTFREDSON’S THEORY OF CIRCUMSCRIPTION, COMPROMISE, AND SELF-CREATION 105