Tactics-Strategy

A TRAIT THAT FOR A LONG TIME REMAINED THE MOST MYSTERIOUS IN TERMS OF ITS SUBSTANTIVE CONTENT.
BUT FINALLY, WE WILL NOW TRY TO ANALYZE ITS SEMANTIC MARKER CLUSTERS OBTAINED IN THE EXPERIMENT.

To avoid p-hacking, all clusters (with the exception of the last cluster “miscellaneous”) are formed not only from those questionnaire items (with known, verified socionic profiles) that showed maximal loadings specifically on the trait “tactics–strategy”, but also additionally from all other items of the questionnaire bank with known profiles that are closely related in meaning to these questions.

COMPOSITION OF THE 16 SEMANTIC CLUSTERS OF THE TRAIT “TACTICIANS–STRATEGISTS”

The first number after each questionnaire statement shows the share of its socionic variance linked exclusively to the socionic trait “tacticians–strategists” (the “minus” sign here is purely conventional and, when present, indicates the connection of the item with the pole of strategists).
The second number after each questionnaire statement is the number of respondents whose answers were used to calculate the socionic profiles of this questionnaire statement.

CLUSTER 1

In tacticians, their inert imagination, that is, internal attention (a weakly controlled and weakly inhibited, therefore little selective and “sticking” associative process on separate particular moments) gets bogged down in details and particulars. Strategists, in contrast, immediately and more easily “see” in a situation or problem what is primary and whole. The thinking of strategists is thereby more “large-scale”.

  1. I often pay more attention to thinking through the ways of achieving a goal than to the goal itself. 0,26 1972
  2. The overall meaning of a joke I hear does not always reach me instantly. 0,31 560
  3. At first, individual bright details catch my eye, I notice and remember them well, but to immediately grasp and recognize the whole at a quick glance is sometimes rather difficult for me. 0,30 1199
  4. Which is closer to you? (indicate the number of the option) – 1) Secondary details are more often an obstacle to the matter, one needs to be able to ignore them for work to be effective. 5) Attention to secondary details is useful – as a rule, it is from them that a fundamentally new and more holistic view of the structure and nature of what we are dealing with later grows. 0,25 309
  5. I often sin with petty nitpicking about the work of others. 0,32 309
  1. A large-scale whole is always more interesting to me than its small and “subtle” details. -0,40 5977
  2. In order for me to become seriously interested in some matter, it must necessarily be grandiose and of common importance. -0,42 4703
  3. I do not like to fuss with small facts, so I usually try to “cram” them into some general rule, even if they do not fit there very well. -0,33 1024
  4. With equal pay, assembling large items on a conveyor would be preferable for me to assembly work under a microscope. -0,24 1168
  5. I more often strive to simplify rather than complicate the structure of the object of my thought. -0,16 251
  6. In my thoughts I more often operate with masses of people rather than with individual persons. -0,26 373
  7. The quantity and volume of what has been done in most of my affairs is usually more important than the depth of elaboration. -0,16 657
  8. For a scientific theory to be especially interesting to me, it must be almost all-encompassing. -0,23 4928

CLUSTER 2

Inert, stable, strong (vivid) and almost living “its own life” visual imagination in the case of tactics (little controlled and with difficulty inhibited by consciousness), and unstable, quickly fading – in the case of strategy.

  1. I have vivid and colorful visual imagination in which I can play out entire plots developing over time, as if I were sitting in the audience in a theatre. 0,28 918
  2. In my imagination I can play out scenes similar to cartoons. 0,36 240
  3. When thinking about some object, I begin to almost distinctly see it in my imagination. 0,46 4579
  1. As soon as I imagine some visual picture in my mental imagination, it quickly fades, it does not last long. -0,44 4983

CLUSTER 3

In the case of tacticians – mobile (fluctuating and quickly fading), controlled and obedient-subordinate sensing – at the level of drives and desires, and in the case of strategists – stable, inert and irresistible.

  1. I know how to sensitively wait for the right moment, remaining submissive to fate. 0,12 811
  2. In the last three months I have not had any sexual dreams. 0,22 203
  3. If necessary, I can do without sexual relations for a long time without feeling any discomfort from this. 0,32 1982
  1. I have one constant and strong drive that dominates all the others. -0,34 1658
  2. I have bad habits (such as smoking) that I am unable to give up – so if I for some time remain without cigarettes, I experience it as torment (if you do not smoke, then by analogy for some other of your habits). -0,32 778
  3. I usually eat with a certain greediness. -0,26 1135
  4. I often experience strong sexual desire. -0,25 1135
  5. It is true that in sexual infidelities to my partner conscience has never particularly stopped me. -0,19 847
  6. To give up any habits, even harmful ones, is extremely difficult for me – everything deep inside immediately starts to revolt against such an unpleasant attempt to deprive me of something. -0,20 1192
  7. Even at home I will wear only the best and most prestigious items from my wardrobe – even if I have few such things. -0,21 1280
  8. I am able and even like to endure intensive long-distance running for a long time. -0,20 2775
  9. I smoke more than half a pack of cigarettes a day. -0,11 203
  10. I often smoke and smoke a lot per day – more than other smokers. -0,17 1898
  11. I often smoke and smoke a lot per day – more than usually smokes a good half of other smokers. -0,17 1280
  12. I smoke a pack of cigarettes a day or more. -0,19 601
  13. I still smoke, even though I tried to give up this habit. -0,01 249
  14. There are bad habits (for example, smoking) that are much stronger than I am. 0,00 203

CLUSTER 4

For strategists, for an unknown reason, the predisposition to inflamed acne is somewhat increased (in contrast to tacticians, who have it less).

  1. I often have pustules and boils appear on my skin. -0,25 739
  2. I have acne on my face (or it appears periodically). -0,18 203
  3. I am plagued by pimples on my back (or this occurred in my youth). -0,31 488

CLUSTER 5

In tacticians, as a result of the inertia of intuitive processes, there is a constant mental sticking of internal attention on something. Often – with the cyclical return of thoughts to one and the same thing. Tactics is narrow internal attention while simultaneously broad external attention. In this cluster the questions characterizing the narrow internal attention of TACTICIANS are collected.

  1. If I am occupied with some interesting problem, I may not remember about time at all. 0,20 415
  2. Records I have worked through, notes that have played their role I keep “for memory” and just in case – because of this I sometimes get cluttered with old papers that I am sorry to throw away. 0,20 1180
  3. I go from general theory to concrete application more readily than from particular cases to general conclusions. 0,25 847
  4. Sometimes I catch myself automatically counting random objects – for example, people in a queue, or buttons on a person’s dress, or the number of letters in signs, etc. 0,29 959
  5. I often imagine various imaginary situations with many naturalistic and sometimes even nauseating details. 0,22 4274
  6. I like to put things together, sort, rearrange – these activities calm me and help me think. 0,21 958
  7. Sometimes it is hard for me to stop in minor semantic editing of prepared documents – as they say, “the process sucks you in.” 0,23 528
  8. In childhood–youth I collected collections. 0,26 374
  9. I carefully preserve some memorable things associated with memories. 0,30 1861
  10. In my imagination I often feel some smells, even though they are not present in the surrounding air at that moment. 0,32 1347
  11. Often, when formulating a thought, I initially express myself wordily, “in a roundabout way.” 0,29 611
  12. In the sphere of imagination I have a very intent “inner” mental gaze: any object I think about I can hold in attention for a long time and without distraction, and at the same time track all the transformations that occur with it over time. 0,28 1067
  13. Sometimes during the day I call up one and the same thought many times in a row. 0,29 1199
  14. I would enjoy doing various meditations and breathing practices that help self-improvement. 0,37 410
  15. I know how to enjoy the process of falling asleep, when a sweet beckoning feeling of happiness and serenity in a half-sleep gradually spreads through the thoughts, widens and envelops you entirely, drawing you into the depth of sleep. 0,32 444
  16. I can stare at something, mechanically holding my gaze on this object for a long time. 0,37 243
  17. I like to look at distant ships at sea. 0,22 1130

CLUSTER 6

The broad external attention of tacticians (associated with their mobile sensing) is constantly jumping and noticing in the surrounding world and in the subject’s own sensations various amusing trifles, and the narrow and sticking internal attention makes an event out of these trifles.

  1. If I move my eyes a little to the side from the television screen (an old one, with a picture tube, not a liquid-crystal one) – I see a distinct flickering of the brightness of its screen. In exactly the same way I notice the rapid flickering of the brightness of fluorescent lamps if I look slightly to the side of their tubes. 0,26 1331
  2. If I look at a white object against a darker background, then around the object I distinctly see a narrow fringe of black halo (check it). 0,30 1634
  3. If I look at a book against a wall that differs from it in brightness, then around the book there is clearly visible a fringe of two or three alternating light and dark bands. 0,30 809
  4. If I look at a dark object on a grey background, then around the object I clearly see an “outline” of a light halo. 0,30 594
  5. I often automatically pay attention to and notice all sorts of trifles around me that in general have no significance for me. 0,28 1295
  6. I will not pass by and will certainly make a remark if I see a teenager spitting on the floor or dirtying the elevator. 0,24 1260
  7. It annoys me when people put the stress incorrectly in words, I always want to correct them. 0,19 4047

CLUSTER 7

In psychology it is known that the subjective perception of the duration of elapsed time is associated with the filling of external attention with events. The more events are noticed over the same physical time, the more subjective time, as it seems to the subject, has passed. The constantly fluctuating mobile external attention of intuitive tacticians (which, moreover, periodically drops out altogether due to a complete withdrawal into inert internal attention) creates a very heterogeneous filling of the subject’s individual time with external impressions. Because of this, intuitive tacticians often feel that their time moves unevenly, pulsating, with a constantly changing speed, as if sometimes “thickening”, sometimes “rarefying”.

  1. I often feel that over some five minutes time either speeds up or slows down – as if pulsing, as if moving unevenly. 0,26 930
  2. Sometimes I feel that over some five minutes time either speeds up or slows down – as if pulsing, as if moving unevenly. 0,16 572
  3. Sometimes there is a feeling that over some five minutes time moves unevenly, sometimes freezing and stretching, sometimes making some sharp jumps in my perception. 0,11 306
  4. For me there is no calm calendar time: my time is always either running and flowing, or jumping, or stopping. 0,03 852

CLUSTER 8

Emotional-orgasmic coloring of sounds (their attractive power requiring further harmonic resolution). Similar sensations are normally characteristic for some people, but they are also marker-like for the action of a number of dysleptics–serotoninomimetics (especially psilocybin and partly lysergic acid diethylamide*), whose influence on the psyche is characterized by a sharp amplification of almost all properties typical for the tactics pole.

  1. Any combination of notes, any musical chord painfully demands in my auditory perception its subsequent harmonic resolution – the calling force of this expectation is sometimes so great that it almost makes my teeth ache. 0,48 1577
  2. It often seems to me that certain sounds in slow melodies have a special saturation and are fused with my attractive emotions. 0,19 906
  3. At times it seems to me that certain sounds and musical tones acquire an almost orgasmic, attractively sensual power. 0,12 934

CLUSTER 9

The subjective sensation of a special brightness and contrast saturation of the colors of surrounding objects. This is another property of tacticians, which also manifests strongly in the lysergamide–psilocybin syndrome*. It is possible – this can be allowed as a hypothesis – that in this case (as well as for the properties of tacticians in the norm) we are dealing with a sharp activation of the right inferior temporal cortex (associated with color perception) with simultaneous depression of the functions of the left visual inferior temporal cortex. On the other hand, if we consider the situation from a biochemical point of view, then similar symptoms (as well as the previous one, associated with the orgasmic coloring of sounds that require their harmonic resolution) arise with specific deviations in the activity of serotonin receptors on neurons (this follows from the fact that all dysleptics* exert a selective effect on a certain part of serotonin receptors, and this is what their action on the brain amounts to).

  1. Sometimes even in twilight objects seem to me bright and saturated in color. 0,31 867
  2. Light glares on surrounding objects often seem blinding to me, and the colors of objects – bright and saturated. 0,24 654

CLUSTER 10

Recurring dreams – a symptom of the tacticians’ pole.

  1. At times I have the same nightmarish dream. 0,20 484
  2. It happens that I have “sequel” dreams: when on the next night the dream is repeated again with a continuation of the plot. 0,20 743
  3. Sometimes I see the same scary dream repeating over and over. 0,17 950

CLUSTER 11

Frequent and vivid dreams – a symptom of the tacticians’ pole.

  1. About once a month or more often I wake up at night from an unpleasant dream. 0,20 410
  2. I often have vivid, colorful dreams. 0,20 786
  3. Almost every night I see some dreams. 0,20 807
  4. I see dreams almost every night. 0,19 1671
  5. I often have revelatory dreams with a “philosophical” subtext. 0,16 1213
  6. I often see vivid dreams with an “adventurous” plot. 0,11 601
  7. Fairly often I have colorful dreams with a fairy-tale, fantastic plot. 0,08 1135
  8. I often dream of something. 0,07 846
  9. I often remember my dreams. 0,07 579
  10. Almost every night I dream of something. 0,06 472
  1. I have an even, deep and calm sleep with rare or absent dreams. -0,04 480
  2. I very rarely see dreams at night or do not see them at all. -0,06 1923
  3. I usually have deep sleep without dreams. -0,10 601

CLUSTER 12

Milk causes digestive disorders less often in tacticians, which may indicate a partial positive statistical connection of the TACTICIANS’ pole with the European mutation of the lactase gene about 10 thousand years old, which ensures good tolerance of milk (due to the effective enzymatic breakdown of milk sugar that persists into adulthood).

  1. I like milk with a bun. 0,24 203
  1. I do not drink milk at all. -0,30 203
  2. My stomach poorly tolerates any milk – even fresh milk can cause intestinal upset. -0,15 877

CLUSTER 13

In tacticians, the pilomotor reflex (tension of the muscles of skin hairs) is enhanced, as a tendency. Note that the pilomotor reflex is also enhanced under the action of serotoninomimetics such as lysergic acid diethylamide*, which distort the normal functioning of serotonin receptors. That is, here too there is a connection with cerebral serotonin.

  1. If someone lightly touches my skin, especially on the neck, “goose pimples” immediately appear on it with tingling, and the hairs tense and stand on end. 0,28 1481
  2. It often happens to me that while listening to music, pleasant tingles run through my body (with a light “goose skin” when skin hairs tense, for a short time standing in little bumps). 0,28 221
  3. Quite often the skin on my body tenses and goes into bumps, and the hairs on it stand on end. 0,16 1139
  4. Sometimes (at least once a week) the hairs on my body tense and stand “upright”, “on end”. 0,13 1723
  5. From light touches to the body I easily experience the sensation of running “tingles,” and the body is covered with “goose skin” with small tense bumps around the rising hairs. 0,13 4505
  6. Sometimes I felt that the skin on my head tenses and the hair on it seems to stand “on end”. 0,00 821

CLUSTER 14

For tacticians, more than for strategists, episodes of quasi-orgasmic sensations of “stretching”, “twisting” in the skin and muscles of the extremities are characteristic. Note that this symptom, which also occurs in the norm, is simultaneously characteristic for the lysergamide syndrome*, again being associated with distortions in the work of serotonin receptors (activation of some serotonin receptors and inhibition of serotonin receptors of some other types).

  1. I have heightened skin sensitivity – often even without reason over the surface of the body there seems to run a pleasant languor with stretchings (5 – if it happens almost every day, 4 – at least once a week, 3 – on average once a month, 2 – much more rarely, I do not even remember whether it happened in the last two years, 1 – if it happened sometime, then very long ago and only during illness with fever). 0,20 883
  2. Sometimes even without any cold I feel in my muscles and skin a pleasant, but somewhat intrusive languor and “stretchings”. 0,17 604
  3. Sometimes without cause I feel in my body and skin some pleasant languor somewhat reminiscent of sexual sensations. 0,04 1090

CLUSTER 15

Among tacticians, somnambulism occurs more often.

  1. People say that at night I sometimes got out of bed and did something, and then remembered absolutely nothing about it. 0,33 1234
  2. It has happened that in my sleep I sat up in bed, or got up, or moved to another bed, and then, waking up, I remembered nothing about it. 0,28 766
  3. I have had episodes of somnambulism (walking and doing something in my sleep, and then not remembering it). 0,00 883

CLUSTER 16

Miscellaneous

  1. I have always very much liked watching various magic tricks and getting to the bottom of what the secret is. 0,42 905
  2. In childhood it often happened that in my dreams I imagined myself in the role of a magician–illusionist. 0,25 454
  3. Some people experience it so that certain sound stimuli (someone’s whisper, a monotonous voice, or the crunch of a bag, the rustle of gravel, etc.) first cause a kind of pleasant tickling in the back of the head, as if inside the head, and after a couple of seconds this then spreads with tingles and a surge of pleasant tingling–orgasmic feelings down through the whole body. In physiology this is called “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response”. Enter in the yellow cell to the right the number 1 if you have never had this, 2 – if it happened once or twice in your life, 3 – if it occurred practically every year, 4 – if it happens several times a year; 5 – if this happens to you regularly. 0,35 779
  4. I can watch television at an angle to the screen without feeling any discomfort from this and practically not noticing the distortion of the image at all. 0,32 785
  5. It has happened that I had a dream in which I experienced an unpleasant sensation of transparency and audibility of all my thoughts to those around me. 0,25 1135
  6. Waking up at night in the middle of a dream, with my eyes open I still continue for some time to see on the background of the walls moving colored patterns or gradually dissolving figures from my dreams. 0,22 1905
  1. I like and can listen to gypsy romances for a long time. -0,49 818
  2. I prefer songs more than instrumental music, since melody without words is almost always weak. -0,35 719
  3. It is true that I never have auditory hallucinations. -0,25 870

FROM CONSIDERING THE COMPOSITION OF ALL 16 CLUSTERS GIVEN ABOVE ONE CAN DRAW THE FOLLOWING CONCLUSIONS:

  1. The tactics pole is indeed connected with the “inertia” of intuition – more precisely, with the inertia (weak controllability) of the function of internal attention, which acquires a “narrow” and sticking character. At the same time, external attention (in a certain sense, a synonym of sensing) remains mobile and broad.
  2. The strategists’ pole is indeed connected with the “inertia of sensing” – this is especially noticeable in the inertia of the sphere of desires and drives in “strategists”. At the same time, the internal attention of strategists (a synonym of intuition) remains broad, mobile and well consciously controllable. In particular, it works only in short flashes and is easily inhibited, and as a result does not get stuck on details and ensures high selectivity of the associative process.
  3. The neurophysiological difference between tacticians and strategists may lie in the peculiarities of the functioning of serotonin receptors on neurons. In any case, dysleptics–serotoninomimetics*, which distort serotonin regulation of the brain, lead, according to the literature, to the appearance of symptoms which are, in the norm, partly characteristic precisely of the “tacticians” pole.