In the context of a class, what does the 'self' keyword refer to?

The 'self' keyword is commonly used in class definitions in programming languages such as Python to refer specifically to the instance of the class being interacted with. This allows the methods within the class to access and modify the object's attributes and invoke other methods that belong to the same instance.

When you define a method within a class, you typically include 'self' as the first parameter. This parameter acts as a reference to the current instance of the class, enabling you to work with instance-specific data. For example, if you have an instance of a class called "Dog," using 'self' would let you access attributes like 'self.name' or call methods like 'self.bark()' on that specific dog instance.

This aspect is crucial because each instance of a class can have different attributes (such as name, age, or breed for a Dog class). By using 'self', it ensures that the method operates on the correct instance, distinguishing it from other instances of the same class.