HW5: Actual Survey Form

Gender: _____

Age: _____

How often do you seek a fortune teller?

______ Always

______ Sometimes

______ Never 

 In your opinion, fortune telling is a….

______ Business

______ Counseling

______ Fraud

______ Talent/gift from God

______ Other (Please specify: ____________________________)

Which fortune telling method do you prefer?

______ Cartomancy (using a deck of cards)

______ Astrology (celestial bodies)

______ Palmistry or chiromancy (palm reading)

______ Crystallomancy (gazing at a crystal globe, a pool of water, 
               a mirror, or any transparent object)   

______ Other (Please specify: ____________________________)

How would you describe your experience/s with a fortune teller?

______ Pleasant or positive

______ Convincing or believing

______ Traumatic or negative

______ Skeptical or doubtful

What might be the reason/s on why you want to go on a fortune teller?

______ To ask for advice

______ To ask about my future

______ For experience/s

______ Other (Please specify: ____________________________)

What are the questions/matters that you would ask a fortune teller?

__________________________________________________

Based on your experience/s with a fortune teller, how did it affects/influences you?

______________________________________________________

Do you believe in fortune telling?

______ Yes

______ No

______ Reliant/dependent to other matters (please specify: ______________)

HW4: Cover Letter

November 21, 2012


Dear Respondents,

Hi! I am Alpha T. Pedralvez, a Bachelor of Science in Accountancy student at Asia Pacific College. I am conducting a research study entitled 'Fortune Telling: Methods, Themes and Psychological Effects'. The purpose of my study is to collect different opinions or perceptions from different respondents based on their perspective on fortune telling and its psychological effects to an individual.

Your participation will involve answering some general demographic questions and some questions relative to my research study. The questionnaire will take approximately 10 minutes to complete. Your involvement in the study is voluntary, and your responses will be completely anonymous. You do not have to answer any question you would rather not answer. There are no consequences if you decide not to complete the survey and you can stop at any time. 

The findings from this project will provide information with no cost to you other than the time it takes for the survey. If you have any questions about this research project, please feel free to contact me at (0917) 559-0130 or send an e-mail to pedralvezalpha@gmail.com. 

By returning this questionnaire in the envelope provided or by sending me your answers via electronic mail, whichever is more convenient for you, you will be agreeing to participate in the above described project.

Thanks for your consideration! 

Sincerely, 

Alpha T. Pedralvez

Bachelor of Science in Accountancy, Asia Pacific College

HW3: Fortune telling as counseling

Life is beautiful, for some it is a bed of roses but for some it is not. There are those who view life as a challenge, a network of discovery and innovation, a chance for success and a door to wealth. For them life is gratifying, colorful and rewarding. In whatever situations, these kind of people find themselves keep on believing and fighting. For them, “Where there is life, there is hope.” But there are some who view life as hard, punishing and merciless. For them, they can do nothing to be good and in most times, they lost every sense of direction.

No matter who we are and how we view life, it will always be tough; it was in fact an ocean of endless problems. And whenever we take problems seriously, it gives us stress which affects each of us in different ways and it can seriously affect your physical and mental well-being. 

Whenever I have problems, I strongly face it and will easily think and execute possible solutions to that problem. And when I am becoming stressful, I am talking or opening things with someone I trust which I know can help me clear my mind and can give me good pieces of advice. I as well take time to rest or have a very short vacation to be more relaxed and comfortable.

There are other people who choose to seek fortune tellers for a quick answer or fix to the problem they are having. They may be mentally lazy or depressed and they may simply be searching and a fortuneteller or psychic is an easy way to find answers.

This article is entitled “Putting the ‘fortune’ back in fortune telling” by Philip Brasor & Masako Tsubuku. This article is from a tabloid press in Japan about a comedian who apparently has wasted her career and whatever money it made her on the services of a self-styled fortune teller who effectively commandeered her life. I believe this kind of scenario is also present in the Filipino society.

Based on the article, the comedian named Tomoko Nakajima first turned to a fortune teller when she needed an advice about becoming a freelance writer. The fortune teller told her to get married and she did it but the marriage didn’t work and she divorced. Despite what turned out to be bad advice she continued seeking counsel from fortune tellers, obsessed with what would happen to her in the future until she became indebted. But in the end, she kicked her habit.

In my own point of view, asking for pieces of advice to people whoever you may wish to is not a question but the dilemma arises if you will become addicted or habituated to ask for help at all times. This makes a person losing his confidence or trust in his self and have the fear of committing mistakes based on the decisions he will make.

Money is an essential component of addiction. Traditionally, one finds fortune tellers on the street, sitting in front of little stands, handing out advice in ten-minute of time, and ten minutes is never enough especially if the fortune teller speaks so accurate or factual. This then can make the client to feel relaxed or untroubled and cheered up because the fortune teller appeared to listen on the worries of the client and gives guidance or advice to him.

However the act of “repeated” emotions to a fortune teller is what makes the process so habit-forming. It’s like a tranquilizer to reduce the fear of the unknown, but since the fear is never directly dealt with it never goes away, and so the client has to continue seeking advice. As what I as well observed, clients who complain about the fortune teller are mostly because the advice didn’t work or the falsity of their talent or gift and they weren’t able to get their money’s worth and not so much with the expensive fee.

The fee a person pays to a fortune teller is about the same as the consultation fee you can pay to a psychiatrist or counselor. A fortune teller uses his instinct or feelings to prophesize or answer questions while a counselor or psychiatrist uses his knowledge or wisdom from his years of education. The similarity between them is they both give or specialize in giving advice with no guarantee results but in different ways.

I believe that mind is the center of everything. It controls one’s thoughts and beliefs. No one can directly know what the answer to your problem except you alone because it is yours. A positive mind helps one to discover the beauty of life. A great person is one who has faith or belief in his identity and potentials.

HW2: Fortune Telling as Fraud

Can you imagine life without basic needs such as food, water, air, money, shelter, clothing, family, education, transportation and many others? Humans need a number of necessities to be able to survive. These needs include either physical or non-physical elements needed for human growth and development. According to Abraham Maslow, needs are hierarchical in nature. That is, each need has a specific ranking or order of attainment.

The most common reason for fraudulent actions is the scarcity of needs. A critical financial need is usually the cause of fraud. Some people also commit fraud to pay for a prominent life style which then they could not afford to sustain. Needs may arise from a number of situations such as: marriage break-ups and/or extravagant love affairs, drug or alcohol addiction, debts, gambling, business deficits and unexpected family emergencies.

According to the dictionary, fraud is a false representation of a matter of fact—whether by words or by conduct, by false or misleading allegations, or by concealment of what should have been disclosed—that deceives and is intended to deceive another so that the individual will act upon it to her or his legal injury. If there are white lies which means lying for a good reason, fraud is as well like a white offense which means it is a crime without anyone being hurt.

I found an article entitled “Fortune Telling Fraud” from Wikipedia supported by another article entitled “Secret testimony, use of ‘Gypsy’ term to be given to defense in “psychic” fraud case” by Paula McMahon.

According to the first article from Wikipedia, “The basic feature of the scam involves diagnosing the victim (the "mark") with some sort of secret problem that only that fortune teller can detect or diagnose, and then charging the mark for ineffectual treatments. The fortune teller announces that the mark is suffering from a curse that her magic can relieve, while threatening dire consequences if the curse is not lifted.”

It also states that “In this scam, a fortune teller uses her cold reading skill to detect that a client is genuinely troubled rather than merely seeking entertainment; or is a gambler complaining of bad luck. The fortune teller informs the mark that they are the victim of a curse, but that for a fee a spell can be cast to remove the curse.”

In my point of view, because of scarcity of needs (especially financial) some fortune tellers grabbed the chance to defraud their customers. A crime designed to financially control a victim can be made under the mask of delivering advice or aid. It requires attaining the victim's complete trust and, then through cautiously manipulation, convincing the victim to give money and valuables to the suspect(s). Victims of these cases are of any age and gender with a common purpose of seeking answers to their questions or asking for help in solving their problem in their life.

I believe that the crime commences with the usual ‘reading’ process for a minimal fee. The fortune teller uses methods and props such as Tarot cards, crystal ball, palm reading, horoscopes, numerology, etc. During the session, the reader/fortune teller can apply his/her cold reading ability, it is the ability to gain information about the customer without that person realizing that the reader is actually giving up the information him/herself. This alone is an instance of fraud for it deceives or takes unfair advantage of his/her customer.

On the second article, a family of fortune tellers defrauded several clients of $40 million by taking money and valuables they promised to give back but failed to return. They now wanted to use the word ‘gypsy’ as a defense in their psychic fraud case. There are stories in the second article and in the Wikipedia which are similar to other articles where a psychic reader was accused of inducing a 12 year old girl to steal $10,000 worth of jewelry from her parents by threats of a curse. All the stories have a common point, that the fortune teller convinced her client to send her money and property in payment for a year of prayer to be cleansed of "evil" or “curse”.

As soon as the customer now believed that there is really an evil or curse, the reader now convinces the victim that through physic powers she/he alone is able to remove this curse. And because the victim believed that the fortune teller has God-given talent/powers then he/she is now willing to pay or giving everything to be able to remove or destruct the curse or evil with pray over.

I strongly consider that no matter what they call it, ‘gypsy’, ‘psychic’ or ‘fortune teller’, they are considered as one for they have the same purpose, to defraud or manipulate their customers/victims. A long-term fraud/crime results in the total psychological manipulation of the victim, which separates them from any support from family or friends and keeps them very open or vulnerable to any suggestions given by the reader.

HW1: Survey Questions

One of the most productive things a student can do would be to invest their precious time and effort in writing a research paper. I believe that the essence of research paper writing is to enhance students’ knowledge and critical thinking capabilities acquired during their academic race. And this would be very important for their professional career in the future.

Almost two months ago, I have started my research paper which was entitled “Fortune telling: Methods, Themes and Psychological Effects”. Currently, I am in the process of completing my research paper. So far, I have finished Chapter 1. The introductory chapter composes of the background of the study, statement of the problem, significance of the study, scope and delimitation, materials and methods and definition of terms. 

There are many things I am knowledgeable of especially about my topic which is fortune telling. But still, I want to acquire something about my topic such as: the percentage of people who believe in fortune telling, how often and their reason/s for seeking a fortune teller and many other.

My study gathers relevant information from various reference materials such as articles, books, publications in press, blogs and other online resources. To continue my study, I decided to include interviews/surveys as one of my methods/materials. The purpose of my interview/survey is to collect different opinions or perceptions from different respondents.

I will conduct interview/survey for it gives insight on what the person being interviewed is thinking, or appears to be thinking and for more accurate information coming from person’s personal experiences and views. And the results/responses can help me in my conclusions and will be relevant for the completion of my paper. 

These interview/survey questions are intended for different respondents. Basically, this interview/survey necessitates the respondent to answer questions about his/her age and gender. These are necessary because I wanted to determine the difference of psychological effects of fortune telling between men and women as well as people of different ages.

I formulated a hypothesis or wild guess about what might be the result of this interview/survey. First, I supposed women take fortune telling or predictions seriously or meaningfully while men take it skeptically. Second, I supposed that huge percentage of older people are believers of fortune telling or predictions because it appears that it is somewhat related to superstitious beliefs and only small percentage of believers comes from younger people because young generations are more open or vulnerable to more realistic things and might just try fortune telling just for curiosity.

The psychological effects of fortune telling depend on how a person views predictions. There is no assurance that each respondent will react to the object in the same way. It is just a matter of benefits or detriment.