Jeremy Wolfe The Brain Summary

Lecture 1: The Brain: Between the Ears, Behind the Eyes begins with a brief introduction to psychology. The professor, Jeremy Wolfe, explains his definition of “folk psychology” as the psychology people pick up from everyday life without taking an actual psychology course. Furthermore, Professor Wolfe states that this course will be more in depth than just folk psychology. Shortly after, he poses the following question to his class: “What is love?” He explains that love is defined as an emotion, however, it is more complex than other emotions such as sadness and happiness. There is no distinct feeling to love. For example, one day an individual can feel happy while in love and other days can feel sad while in love. Then, Professor Wolfe, transitioning into …show more content…
He defines neurons as brain cells that collect information from other neurons or from sense organs through dendrites. It was difficult for me to follow his explanation of the nervous system because he was speaking and drawing examples on a board simultaneously. His drawings along with his explanation would have allowed me to get a greater understanding of the topic. Following this explanation, Professor Wolfe asks his class, “Why do we do anything” He answers this question by stating that people do things for the environment or their brains. Shortly after, he explains the difference between a positive reinforcer and a negative reinforcer. A positive reinforcer is when an individual does something and as a result something favorable happens. On the other hand, a negative reinforcer is when someone does something but as a result something negative happens. As a result, individuals are more likely to preform actions again that result in a positive outcome as opposed to actions with a negative outcome. This lecture was very informative and taught me a lot about