Stephanie has finished college and happily begun a career as a chemist. But her mother explains that few decisions are permanent, and that Stephanie may continue to reevaluate her choices and change careers several times during the course of her life. Stephanie's mother is describing

The MAMA cycle

Explanation:

James Marcia was a psychologist who came up with a theory about identity development in adolescents. He proposed that adolescents go through different stages in the process of finding their identity and commit to it.

The MAMA cycle is a concept that was introduced by Marcia as part of his theory and refers to the cycle between identity "moratorium" (the stage where the person is going through a crisis and exploring different options to find which identity is best for them) and identity "achievement" (the stage in which the person commits to an identity and makes it part of them).

Thus, the MAMA cycle is what happens when people question decisions previously made and this makes them go through a moratorium process trying to find a new identity to commit to.

In this example, Stephanie's mom explains her that few decisions are permanent and that she may reevaluate her choices and change careers during the course of her life. Her mom is explaining to Stephanie how she may question decisions previously made (becoming a chemist) and reevaluate her choices by exploring new options and change careers. Thus, this is an example of the MAMA cycle.