Is there a categorical or dimensional difference between social anxiety and social phobia?

I am about to begin my first year of graduate school at Buffalo and have been in the midst of digesting and contemplating the research on shyness, social anxiety, and social phobia in an adolescent population. Being that the metacognitive, interpersonal, and hormonal changes of adolescence spur a certain degree of increasing social anxiety, I was wondering if clinical research has "empirically" delineated the boundaries between social anxiety and social phobia? I was wondering if cognitive-behavioral treatments have ever been utilized as an intermittent device for adolescents who may not be diagnostic cases of social phobia, but would find it efficacious to improve their levels of anxiety, assertiveness, and interpersonal exploration? Hypothetically, imagine an adolescent experiencing extreme levels of social anxiety yet not fully cognizant of the manner in which these anxiety levels influence avoidance behaviors. Perhaps social anxiety is integrated into the personality not as a problem that can be alleviated, but rather as a matrix of personal preferences. In other words, the individual may merely define themself as someone who prefers intimate gatherings with one or two close friends, rather than meeting strangers and going to large parties. The individual may not recognize their anxiety as being irrational and excessive. The social, academic, and occupational costs may be hidden from the individual due to the manner in which it was integrated into the self. My question in whether social anxiety and social phobia should be assessed and treated according to a dimensional model rather than the categorical model of the DSM? Or are these two models compatible? And what about those individuals that are not "conscious" of the excess distress that they experience? Will the current self-report and interview protocols (ADIS-C) catch them?

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