This animated short from National Geographic touches on averages, median, mode, sampling, and the need for cross-cultural research. When defining the typical (modal) human, the video provides good examples of when to use mode (when determining which country has the largest population) and when to use median (median age in the world). It also illustrates the need to collect cross-cultural data before making any broad statements about typicality (when describing how "typical" is relative to a population).

I am teaching positive psychology for the first time this semester. One way to quickly teach students that this isn't just Happy Psych. 101 is to show them convincing data collected by an international organization (here, the United Nations) that demonstrates the link between positive psychology and the well-being of nations. This data isn't just for a positive psychology class: You could also use it more broadly to demonstrate how research methods have to be adjusted when data is collected internationally (see item 4) and as examples of different kinds of data analysis (as described under item 1). 1) Report on international happiness data from the United Nations . If you look through the data collected, there is a survival analysis related to longevity and affect on page 66. A graphic on page 21 describes factors that account for global variance in happiness levels across countries. There is also a lot of data about mental health care spending in different nations. 2 ...