A worldview refers to an extensive and comprehensive outlook on life, reality and the universe. A worldview can be cultural, philosophical, liberal or even religious (Malham, 2017). It shapes an individual’s perspective on existence and trickles down to their daily activities and beliefs. It is indicative of a person’s view point, attitudes and beliefs. An individual’s worldview is also the nucleus of their cultural identity which is characterized by their beliefs, assumptions, values and attitudes, all derived from the socialization process in a specific cultural context. This is to say that a client’s cultural belief system refers to theories either based on culture or ethnicity that determine the way the client understands and structures their attitudes, health or otherwise. A cultural belief system is therefore a configuration of thoughts, notions, concepts and ideas in which their components are brought together by some form of functional reliance or interdependence (Daenikindt, de Koster, & va der Waal, 2017). Lastly, a paradigm refers to one of the components making up a worldview of cultural belief system. I could be a notion, theory or thought.

The magico-religious health belief system is based on a belief in supernatural or magical forces existing in the natural environment. Under this perspective, everything, including health and illness is in the hands of supernatural powers such as God or gods (De Angulo & Losada, 2017). Treatment can be by indigenous healers and is as a result of the influences of the supernatural forces. In the scientific/biomedical paradigm, however, no supernatural forces dominate. It focuses on solely on biological or physical components and processes excluding all others such as social and environmental influences. Under this paradigm, health and illness are under human control. Its characterized by determinism, mechanism, reductionism and objective materialism. Lastly, it stresses on medical or pharmacological approaches to treatment, approaches which essentially target abnormalities in biological processes (De Angulo & Losada, 2017). The holistic paradigm, unlike the scientific model asserts that all components/elements of a client’s life, be they social, physical, environmental, emotional, psychological and subjective have a bearing on their health. It is based on the laws of nature which require a balance of all the mentioned concepts. Lastly, every component is functionally important or has a role to play in an individual’s health. Their interactions can be nurturing or destructive (Fiandaca, Mapstone, & Federoff, 2017).