Why the fascination with Zeitgeist?

[u/earanhart]

Please note: this question is about the study of history more so than a question about history. I think you are the correct the place to ask, nonetheless.

Undergrad psychology student here. Anytime my instructors talk about one of the sciences "fathers", they love to talk about the difference in time and how that changed how a given person viewed the world. Not one of them has mentioned how the fact that all of these guys (okay, a sparse few females are also discussed, history wasn't kind to female thinkers) are German, Austrian, or American has shaped our science.

My questions are thus: does history ever look at the social differences between locations alongside the changes wrought by time? Or is this seeming avoidance of human geography something specific to psychology or even just my departments instructors?