Finding Dory

By: Sophie Chung

PLOT
During a school field trip, bits and pieces of Dory’s memories appear and begin her journey to find
her parents and where she came from. With the help of Marlin and Nemo, they travel across the
ocean, again, to the Jewel of Morro Bay, California, where Dory was born at the Marine Life
Institute. Along with Marlin and Nemo, Dory receives help from a sectopus (octopus who lost one of
his legs), named Hank. In the end, Dory finds her parents and they all go back to the coral reef where
Nemo lives and they live a happy life.
CRITIQUE
This was the first time I watched this movie and I really liked it. It was nice to see Dory’s
background and history. I grew up watching Finding Nemo and this is a good backstory.
However, this movie made me a little annoyed because there would be easier solutions,
but no one would think of them or Dory would forget and it just made their journey harder.

I would recommend this movie for anyone who watched Finding Nemo.
Empathy-Humanistic Perspective (Unit 1:
History & Approaches)
The humanistic perspective focuses on self-love and self-fulfillment, which empathy falls
under. Empathy is being able to identify and understand another’s situation, feelings, and
motives.

In Finding Dory, Dory asks Marlin if he knows what it feels like to miss someone and he
replies that he does know. This causes him to think about his previous experience with
losing Nemo and now he can empathize with Dory because she lost her parents.
Sympathetic Nervous System (Unit 3: Biological)
This is the division of the autonomic nervous system that
arouses the body to mobilize its energy in stressful
situations.

When Marlin, Nemo, and Dory are traveling across the

ocean and they come across an big squid that starts to attack
them all. This is a stressful situation and it made their
“fight-or-flight” response kick in. In this scene, Marlin and
Dory are breathing faster and trying to save Nemo from the
tentacle.
Inattentional Blindness (Unit 4: Sens. & Perc.)
Inattentional blindness is when you fail to see visible
objects because your attention is directed elsewhere.

While at the Marine Life Institute, Dory suffers from

inattentional blindness when looking at signs to get
her to where she needs to be, the Open Ocean exhibit.
While originally searching for signs that point to
Open Ocean, she becomes distracted by a sign that
says, “The World’s Greatest Pair of Glasses” because
she has seen that sign before in her memories.
Because of this, she did not see the Open Ocean sign
pointing in the opposite direction.
Conductive Deafness (Unit 4: Sens. and Perc.)
Conductive deafness is hearing loss caused by
damage to the middle ear, thus interfering with
the transmission of sound waves to the cochlea.

From my research, I can conclude that Bailey, a

beluga whale who helps Dory, suffers from
conductive deafness, or maybe if there is a
whale version of this. In the movie, Bailey says
that he hit his head really hard, and as a result,
he cannot use his echolocation anymore. After
he hit his head, his middle ear could have been
damaged and he couldn’t use his ability to
echolocate.
Insomnia (Unit 5: States of Consciousness)
Insomnia is when one has recurring problems
staying asleep or falling asleep.

Near the beginning of the movie, Dory starts

dreaming and wakes up when she hits her
head on her rock. Then she starts talking to
Marlin and Nemo and Marlin repeatedly
brings her back to her rock to go to sleep, but
Dory can’t fall asleep again. This shows
insomnia because she had trouble staying
asleep and then after trying many times to fall
back asleep, she couldn’t.
Imprinting (Unit 6: Learning)
Imprinting is when certain birds and mammals form attachments very early in life during a
critical period.

In order to receive help from Becky the bird, Hank tells Marlin to imprint with Becky. By
saying “Ooh roo,” Marlin imprints with Becky and she helps Marlin whenever he calls
her.
Insight (Unit 6: Learning)
Insight occurs when one suddenly realizes
how to solve a problem.

When Marlin and Nemo are stuck in a fish

tank without knowing how to get to their
destination, Marlin realizes how to solve
this problem by doing what Dory would do.
With this insight, he used the fountain
streams of water to propel himself and
Nemo to the other side of the marine park.
His insight was asking himself, “What
would Dory do?”
Deja Vu (Unit 7: Cognition)
Deja vu is the eerie sense that you have already experienced a current situation.

Dory is affected by deja vu when Marlin tells Dory, “Shh, shh” and she realizes that she has
heard the before and she remembers someone saying it, but then Marlin says that he said the
same thing 1 minute ago. This shows deja vu because she falsely believed that she had
experienced someone shushing her in the past but it was really just a current situation.
Instinct (Unit 8: Motivation & Emotion)
An instinct is specific, inborn behavior patterns
characteristic of an entire species.

Mr. Ray, the stingray, talks to Marlin, Dory,

and Nemo about instincts when they are giving
a school field trip. Nemo asks how all the
stingrays know where to migrate and he says,
“Something deep inside you that feels so
familiar that you have to listen to it.
Like a song you've always known.” The
stingrays’ instincts are to migrate to a certain
place at a certain time, so that’s how they know
where to go.
Extrinsic Motivation (Unit 8: Motiv. & Emot.)
Extrinsic motivation is a desire to perform a behavior due to promised rewards or threats
of punishment.

Dory is extrinsically motivated when she begins her journey to find her parents. For her,
the rewards is to be with her parents and have a family again. Instead of crossing the ocean
because she likes to travel, she is extrinsically motivated by the promised reward of
reuniting with her parents.
Crystallized Intelligence (Unit 9: Developmental)
Crystallized intelligence is one’s accumulated knowledge and verbal skills that tend to
increase with age.

While talking to Hank, Dory remembers that the octopus has 3 hearts: 2 pump blood to the
gills, while the third pumps blood throughout the body. This is an example of crystallized
intelligence because it shows learning that has accumulated over time.
Big Five (Unit 10: Personality)
The Big Five factors are conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and
extraversion and these traits are relatively stable in adulthood.

Using the Big Five factor model, Dory would be open and extraverted. She is adventurous
and likes to do things spontaneously. Also, she is extraverted because she isn’t afraid to
start conversations with strangers and she likes talking to everybody.
PTSD (Unit 12: Abnormal Psych)
Post traumatic stress disorder may become
evident after a person has undergone
extreme stress caused by some type of
disaster.

In Dory’s childhood, she experienced a

traumatic event when she lost her parents
when she was swept away by the current.
Since then, this could be a factor in how she
acts. In the movie, she has a flashback, a
symptom of PTSD, of herself being swept
away as her parents scream for her.
In-Group Bias (Unit 14: Social Psych)
In-group bias is the tendency to favor individuals within our group over those from outside
our group.

Although the three animals are all seals, two

of the seals never let the third, Gerald, on the
rock. They are mean towards Gerald,
assumingly because he looks/acts different
from the other. This demonstrates in-group
bias because the two seals on the rock are
the “in-group” and Gerald is the “out-group”
because he isn’t as smart and has furry
eyebrows. This causes the other seals to treat
him differently.
Bystander Effect (Unit 14: Social)
The bystander effect is the tendency for any
given bystander to be less likely to give aid if
other bystanders are present.

Throughout the movie, when Dory is lost and is

trying to ask for help, the other fish swim past
her, barely even noticing. This shows the
bystander effect because since there were so
many other fish around, they probably thought
that someone else would help Dory.
Reflection
I think this project is a good application of psychology and really emphasizes how there is
a lot of psychology behind many everyday things. I hadn’t seen Finding Dory before this
project, but I think it positively impacted how I watched the movie. It allowed me to
understand why Dory did certain things and how she thinks.