Historical context
Historical context refers to past conditions, which influence the present. Most social scientists would agree now that individual behavior is shaped by broader social, economic, political, and physical factors that interact with psychological characteristics in specific place and time.
The historical context refers to political, social, environmental, and cultural decisions or events occurring over time that can be described and linked to the situation under study. Political decisions might include policies that promote warfare, attempt to control population migration, eliminate of social welfare benefits, or decide to move or amalgamate a neighborhood hospital or to introduce a school voucher program—policies that all would have significant consequences for people with limited incomes or for those attempting to improve their life circumstances by crossing national borders to wealthier areas or whose efforts to improve their health and educational status are impaired.
Researchers who examine historical context must find ways of bounding the period of time they are considering. These ways may differ depending on whether researchers are considering relatively recent shifts, as in the case of illegal drug trends or the consequences of the destruction of public housing in Chicago, or long-term trends, as in the case of institutionalized discriminatory practices directed toward specific groups of minority students such as African Americans or Native Americans.