The culture during Shakespeare's time was a very rapidly changing one, but also a very traditional one as well, and Shakespeare spoke his mind about his opinion's on this changing culture through his plays. For example; Shakespeare didn't much like the fact that young boys were playing many of the roles in plays including all the female roles. So he wrote a few lines of his opinion in the play Hamlet saying essentially that it's completely ridiculous and once these boys finally hit puberty their usefulness is up.
A small description on the history of child actors is provided in the link below.
http://home.zipworld.com.au/~lnbdds/Pavey/elprithe.htm
Elizabethan's were also a very superstitious lot of people. They had many ghost tales and fairy tales, and quite a few monsters and witches to accompany those. They pretty much were always on the look out for one of their many superstitions, and oh god if they saw a ghost they would damn well crap themselves. Shakespeare worked with a ghost in this play because he knew the meaning of them in Elizabethan times as he most likely believed them himself. He knew that ,in Elizabethan times at least, that ghost were usually seen as mysterious and malicious, it was believed that most ghost were on this earth with the intention of luring you to hell. And as religion was really big back then, like bigger then the superbowl of today, hell didn't interest too many people and so they stayed away and ghost became a huge superstition among Elizabethans.
For more info on Elizabethan beliefs follow the links below.
http://www.elizabethanenglandlife.com/elizabethan-era-beliefs-and-superstitions.html
http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-ghosts.htm
The Ghost of Hamlet.
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